
I iii i'-'' 






.^.5 



ill riSiJvJ ^i .'i 






^>» 4*^ 







4 o 












» / 1 




«^ /^ 



.0 ^J> * c . o ^ <J,^ 



.^ 



\ 



^ 




t ' a 







r\' 




o 



<^ o ♦ * 



s v" 



< o 



^°-n^. 





V< 



r$* A^ '^ (CC\ «» A, ^o c,^ * 






^^ci>^ -i^///^^^_* '^_^^^ oV^'^^^llY-" ^^^v-*'" ^i'^/^^^^' ^^ 



^^-^.^ 



•^0' 











^^ 



4 O 

• "•^^^^' •'^'° ^^/ •^'- %.^' -'"' 




O • A 





^■^0^ 











THEODORE FLOURNOY 



SPIRITISM 



AND 



PSYCHOLOGY 



BY 

THEODORE FLOURNOY 

PROFESSOR OK PSYCHOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA 
AUTHOR OF " FROM INDIA TO THE PLANET MARS " ETC. 



TRANSLATED, ABRIDGED, AND 
WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

HEREWARD CARRINGTON 

author of 

"the physical phenomena of spiritualism" 

"the coming science" etc. etc. 



ILLUSTRATED 




HARPER 6- BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 

NEW YORK AND LONDON 

M C M X I 






Books by 
TH. FLOURNOY 

From India to the Planet Mars. lU'd. 

Post 8vo $1.50 

Spiritism and Psychology (Translated by 

Hereward Carrington). IH'd. 8vo . net 2.00 

HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK 



A 






COPYRIGHT, ISI-r 'ByHARPER & BROTHERS 



PRINTED IN THE,UriV?!;D STATES OF AMERICA 
PUBLISHED OCTOBER. 1911 



C(.A2973G4 



CONTENTS 

CHAP. PAGE 

Preface . . vii 

Introduction. By Hereward Carrington ... i 

I. The Study of the Supernormal 20 

II. F, W. H. Myers and Subliminal Psychology . . 48 

III. "Deceiving Spirits" 68 

IV. "Beneficent Spirits" 96 

V. The Identity op Spirits 150 

VI. Spirits and Mediums 188 

VII. The Case of Eusapia Palladino 242 

Appendix to Chapter VII 296 

VIII. Spiritism and Spiritualism 303 

Index 349 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PROF. THEODORE FLOURNOY Frontispiece 

PROF. HENRY SIDGWICK Facing p. 30 



MR. FREDERIC W. H. MYERS 

"dr. HODGSON" WRITING THROUGH MRS. PIPER (l) 

DR. RICHARD HODGSON 

MRS. LEONORA E. PIPER 



EUSAPIA PALLADINO 



A SPIRIT FACE 

A TABLE LEVITATION 

" DR. HODGSON " WRITING THROUGH MRS. PIPER (ll) . 



48 

168 
236 
242 
256 
270 
304 



PREFACE 

ONE or two words may not be out of place as to 
my reasons for writing a book of this character. I 
beHeve that scientific investigators — physicians, physi- 
ologists, psychologists — have made a great mistake 
in neglecting for so long the so-called supernormal or 
metapsychical phenomena, under the pretext that 
there is nothing to be found but illusion or charla- 
tanism, and have left its study exclusively to spirit- 
ists, theosophists, mystics, and occultists of all kinds. 
Fortunately, to-day it is almost like forcing open 
a door which is already open to insist upon the 
necessity of seriously occupying one's self with this 
subject, since the official savants themselves have 
ended by perceiving that there is here a realm worthy 
of serious investigation, whence issues unexpected 
light as to the nature of the constitution of our being 
and the play of our faculties. It will be a great day 
when the subliminal psychology of Myers and his 
followers and the abnormal psychology of Freud and 
his school succeed in meeting, and will supplement 
and complete each other. That will be a great for- 
ward step in science and in the understanding of our 
nature. 

vii 



PREFACE 

^Spiritism, as I understand it, is a complete error. 
The facts which I have been enabled to study at first 
hand have left me with the impression that, despite 
certain superficial appearances which the man in the 
street accepts as conclusive, these phenomena are not 
spiritistic in reality, and one would be greatly de- 
ceived if he accepted them at their face value. 

The greater part of these phenomena are, without 
exception, easily explained by mental processes in- 
herent in mediums themselves and their associates. 
The state of passivity, the abdication of the normal 
personality, the relaxation of voluntary control over 
the muscular movements, and the ideas — this whole 
psycho-physiological attitude, where the subject is 
in the state of expectancy of communicating with the 
deceased — strongly predisposes him to mental dis- 
sociation and a sort of infantile regression, a relapse 
into an inferior phase of psychic evolution, where his 
imagination naturally begins to imitate the discarnate, 
utilizing the resources of the subconscious, the emo- 
tional complexes, latent memories, instinctive ten- 
dencies ordinarily suppressed, etc., for the various 
rdles it plays. This is what we might call the psy- 
chological theory of mediumship, as opposed to the 
diabolic theory held by Catholic theologians and the 
spiritistic theory of the intervention of the dead. 

As for the supernormal incidents which are so often 
intermixed with mediumistic phenomena, and which 
spiritists interpret as implying the intervention of 

extra-terrestrial intelligences, to the extent that they 

viii 



PREFACE 

are truly supernormal and do not simply denote 
simple errors of observation, etc. — they denote, in 
truth, a veritable realm of forces and of laws still 
mysterious, but a realm in which (to my mind) the 
presence of the spirits of the dead has not as yet been 
adequately proved. Certainly it would be rash, 
a priori, to exclude the possibility, but, as there are a 
number of cases where supernormal phenomena 
(telepathy, telekinesis, etc.) occur, and in which they 
are obviously not connected with the spirits of the 
departed, but rather with spontaneous and remark- 
able powers in the living, it is logical to suppose — 
provisionally, at least, and until proof to the contrary 
be adduced — that it is the same in other, still more 
obscure, phenomena. / This is notably the case in the 
so-called " physical phenomena " of mediumship — 
telekinesis, materialization, etc. I . hold, with the 
Italian observers and others, that the phenomena 
observed in Eusapia Palladino's presence are genuine; 
and I do not think that the recent "exposures" of this 
medium in America have in the least settled the 
question. But, however that may be, I have dis- 
covered many signs which show that even these 
phenomena do not indicate the presence of any intel- 
ligences from "the other side"; for, in analyzing the 
mentality of these materializations I have discovered 
them to be only creations of the medium — elabora- ,/ 
tions of her subconscious imagination. ""^'^ 

Let me insist here that we must not confound 
spiritism, which is a pretended scientific explanation 

ix 



PREFACE 

of certain facts by the intervention of spirits of the 
dead, with spiritualism, which is a reHgio-philosoph- 
ical behef, opposed to materiaHsm and based on the 
principle of value and the reality of individual con- 
sciousness, and which I conceive to be a necessary 
postulate for a wholesome conception of the moral 
life. Spiritism and spiritualism reveal, also, essen- 
tially different psychological characteristics. One 
may be a spiritist without being a spiritualist, and 
vice versa. So far as I myself am concerned I am a 
convinced spiritualist, but the spiritistic hypothesis 
inspires ^me with an instinctive distrust which could 
only be overcome by unescapable proofs. 

•Finally, I wish to say that had I not hesitated in 
associating names which have my entire respect and 
admiration with a work so unworthy of them, I 
should have dedicated this .volume to the memory of 

MARC THURY WILLIAM JAMES 

(1822— 1905) (1842-1910) 

Professor at the University Professor at Harvard 

of Geneva University 

— who, of all the pioneers of psychical science, remain, 
in my eyes, the exponents, par excellence, of an open- 
minded philosophy, allied with the most rigorous 

scientific method. 

Th. Flournoy. 

Florissant, near Geneva. 
Oct., igio. 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



INTRODUCTION 

BY HEREWARD CARRINGTON 

IT is only about once in a decade that a really good 
book upon psychical research appears — a book, 
i.e., which we feel has definitely and permanently 
advanced our understanding of these obscure phe- 
nomena, and has helped us to interpret them in the 
light of the latest scientific investigations. Most 
books which are published upon this subject are 
merely a conglomerate of existing knowledge, com- 
posed largely of quotations from sources or from books 
by writers who knew little more of the subjects dis- 
cussed than did the author himself. In such books 
there is displayed no originality, no daring specula- 
tions, no profundity of thought, no new facts — noth- 
ing but what had long been known to all intelligent 
students of these phenomena. It is different in the 
case before us. In this volume (which I personally 
consider throws more light on these phenomena than 
any other single volume so far published, with one 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

or two exceptions) these perplexing manifestations 
are treated in a manner at once daring and original, 
and with an impartiality rarely met with in high 
scientific circles. Professor Flournoy is well known 
the world over as a penetrating psychologist, and as 
the author of a remarkable book — From India to the 
Planet Mars — which has been more frequently quoted, 
perhaps, than any other work dealing with these 
questions, with the single exception of Myers's Human 
Personality. It was everywhere extolled as a master- 
piece of impartiality and of keen psychological 
analysis; and these characteristics have extended to 
and are evident throughout the present volume. It 
is a pleasure to read a book so unique as this; and I 
wish to thank Professor Flournoy in this place for his 
prompt permission for me to translate this work into 
the English language, and for his according me the 
privilege of writing this Introduction, as well as the 
right to insert in the volume such foot-notes as I 
deemed desirable. 

In the original this work is more than three times 
the length of the present volume, and the task of 
abridgment has been considerable. I believe, how- 
ever, that almost the whole of the author's argument 
has been preserved in statu quo, and that his analysis 
has not materially suffered as the result of this con- 
densation. A large proportion of the original volume 
was composed of cases collected by Professor Flour- 
noy as the result of a "Questionnaire on Mediumship" 
sent out by him. These cases it has been found im- 



INTRODUCTIOxM 

possible to insert, but it is believed that not much of 
interest has been lost by this omission, since many 
of the cases present no good evidence for the super- 
normal, while practically all of them are but "types" 
which may be found in abundance in the S. P. R. 
Proceedings and elsewhere. I feel, therefore, that, al- 
though the book has doubtless lost by this omission, 
it has also gained by its present compactness and 
readable length. 

The standpoint assumed by the author of this 
volume is sufficiently explained by him in his Preface 
and in the text itself, and will be apparent to all 
readers. It is that spiritism (the belief in communi- 
cation with spirits of the dead) is *'a fallacy," yet 
at the same time he acknowledges the existence of 
telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinesis, materialization, 
and other supernormal phenomena which are not, as 
yet, recognized by official science; and (so far as I* 
know) this book is the first to appear in English from 
the pen of a man holding an official position in a 
university which publicly and courageously cham- 
pions the reality of such facts. Indeed, it is most 
curious to see the apparent certainty, the matter-of- 
course air, with which telepathy and kindred phe- 
nomena are discussed in this volume, being accepted 
by the majority of the European savants as now 
established beyond doubt, and used by them as ex- 
planations for still more obscure facts. How con- 
trary to this attitude is the official dogmatism of the 
English and American scientists (the majority of 

2 3 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

them) who will not admit the reality of the facts for 
an instant, and keep contending and pretending that 
telepathy has not yet been ''scientifically estab- 
lished," etc., as if the mere negation could crush it out 
of existence! They cannot see that such a book as 
this, by its single openness of mind and frank dis- 
cussion and analysis of the facts, is a thousandfold 
more destructive to the claims of spiritism than all 
the haughty negation of our official scientists. And, 
by adopting the policy they do, they also ruin all their 
chances for influencing the public in a rational man- 
ner — as it should be influenced. For, if telepathy, 
telekinesis, etc., were disproved, and shown not to 
exist, there would then be no possible escape from 
spiritism as an explanation of certain puzzling facts 
which are now explained by means of these processes 
without resorting to influences and intelligences from 
another world to accomplish the results we see. For, 
once the supernormal is admitted at all (as every one 
admits who has impartially and carefully studied the 
evidence), its facts must be explained somehow, if 
we are to offer any explanation at all ; and the easiest 
explanation, certainly, is that offered in this volume — 
viz., a combination of certain supernormal powers and 
faculties,^ latent and forgotten memories, and the play 

* I feel that I must apologize for the appearance of this word 
"faculty " in a scientific work, but it has been largely unavoidable, 
partly because of the fact that Professor Flournoy uses it so 
frequently in French (faculte) and partly because Mr. Myers em- 
ployed the term so often in his Human Personality. I realize, 
however, its undesirability and its obsolete character. 

4 



INTRODUCTION 

of the subliminal imagination. There can be no 
doubt that this combination offers a formidable ob- 
stacle to spiritism ; and I believe that the present book 
will do more than any previously published to dis- 
courage spiritistic practices and doctrines. This may 
be beneficial; it may be harmful. Spiritism may 
ultimately prove to be true (as Professor Floumoy 
himself says in several passages of his book) , but that 
does not prevent us from accepting it only after every 
other theory has been shown to be insufficient; only 
after every normal explanation has been applied to 
the facts, and shown to be inadequate. It is this 
attitude of caution — of balanced and suspended judg- 
ment — which is most desirable in psychic investiga- 
tion; it is this attitude which Professor Flournoy 
maintains throughout his book; it was this attitude 
which Professor James maintained, after more than 
thirty years' investigation; and (if I may be per- 
mitted to say so) that is my own attitude after nearly 
thirteen years' investigation of these phenomena. 
Every one who investigates fairly and impartially 
comes to the conclusion, sooner or later, that there is 
a realm of forces and causes as yet unknown; that 
psychic phenomena exist; that they are facts to be 
reckoned with by our human nature and by our 
science — if we wish to remain open to conviction at 
all. But as to the nature of these phenomena — how 
they are produced; who instigates them; whether 
the mentality we at times come in touch with in our 
psychical investigations be that of the medium him- 

5 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

self, or whether it be the discarnate it claims to be, 
or whether it be a masquerading and lying spirit, or 
whether it be some chipped-off fragment of the cosmic 
mind wandering about, as it w^ere, at ''loose ends,'* 
or whether it be a "galvanized shell," animated by 
some other intelligence, or whether it be a "thought- 
form," created by the subliminal of the medium, or 
a teleplastic phantom, or whatever it may be — that is 
the question which remains as yet unsolved, and is 
the great problem of all problems which confronts us 
in psychic investigation to-day. Quot homines; tot 
sententice— let every man select the theory which 
appeals to him the most forcibly. But remember 
that the facts are equally existent, on any theory, 
and cannot be altered or disposed of by a wave of 
the hand, as if they were non-existent. 

Professor Flournoy evidently finds great difficulty 
in accepting the doctrine of spiritism, and for several 
reasons. In the first place, he contends that it has 
not as yet been adequately proved; that most of its 
phenomena can be explained by latent subconscious 
incubation, cryptomnesia, and the added supernormal 
powers of telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. Certainly his 
analysis of many of the cases seems to bear this out 
in a very striking manner. This is, perhaps, the most 
valuable portion of the book, and the one which will 
be most acceptable to the average scientific man. At 
the same time, it must be acknowledged that there 
are many facts which remain unexplained. Pre- 
monitions and independent clairvoyance are hardly 

6 



INTRODUCTION 

touched upon by the author, while many of the 
phenomena witnessed in the case of Mrs. Piper cer- 
tainly cannot be explained by the hypotheses advo- 
cated unless these be so stretched and extended as to 
make them (as Professor Flournoy himself admits) as 
remarkable and inconceivable as spiritism itself. 
Certainly a fact cannot be explained by any process 
of ''latent incubation" in the medium when it can 
be shown that it was never known to her; nor can 
telepathy be invariably used as an explanation, for 
many of the facts were unknown to the sitter himself, 
and were only ascertained after constant inquiry and 
much letter-writing on his part. And, if we stretch 
telepathy to embrace and include all human living 
consciousness, we have here a theory which is as 
staggering as it is unconvincing, and one which, in 
spite of its hypothetical powers, fails to explain 
many of the facts, all of which are perfectly intelligible 
and natural on the spiritistic theory. I do not press 
this argument because I am anxious to defend the 
doctrine of spiritism, for I am not. I, myself, am com- 
pletely ''on the fence'* with regard to it; but I can- 
not but point out the defects of the opposing theories, 
and feel that had Professor Flournoy had an oppor- 
tunity to study at length and at first hand the trance 
phenomena of Mrs. Piper, he would somewhat change 
his attitude regarding this remarkable medium and be 
far less confident than he is now that her phenomena 
are due to other causes and bear other interpretations. 
Professor Flournoy is also opposed to spiritism on 

7 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

account of its harmful effects — moral, mental, and 
physical; and in this he is, I believe, quite right. 
When I wrote my book. The Coming Science, some 
years ago, I contended (pp. 59-78) that there was 
really no good, first-hand evidence that spiritistic 
practices induced abnormal and morbid states and 
conditions to the extent usually supposed. Further 
experience has caused me to change that opinion. 
I now believe that the danger of spiritistic practices 
is very great; and I think that this aspect of the 
problem is one which should be more widely dis- 
cussed, and more attention should be given to it, by 
members of the Society for Psychical Research. In 
the chapter ' ' Spiritism and Spiritualism " this question 
receives brief but trenchant analysis ; and the recent 
writings of Viollet,^ Mr. J. Godfrey Raupert,^ and 
others should be more widely known than they are. 
But it is probable that all these books would not have 
influenced me had I not seen several examples of such 
detrimental influence myself — cases of delusion, in- 
sanity, and all the horrors of obsession. Those who 
deny the reality of these facts, those who treat the 
whole problem as a *'joke," regard the planchette as 
a toy, and deny the reality of powers and influences 
which work unseen, should observe the effects of some 
of these spiritistic manifestations. They would no 
longer, I imagine, scoff at this investigation and be| 

^Spiritism and Insanity, London, 19 10. 
2 The Dangers of Spiritualism; Modern Spiritism; The Supreme 
Problem, etc. 

8 



INTRODUCTION 

tempted to call all mediums simple frauds, but would 
be inclined to admit that there is a true ' ' terror of the 
dark," and that there are "principalities and powers" 
with which we, in our ignorance, toy, without know- 
ing or realizing the frightful consequences which 
may result from this tampering with the unseen 
world.* 

And all this holds true — all is no less real — whether 
we regard this ** other world" — this beyond — as a real 
spiritual universe, composed of good and evil in- 
fluences, or whether we regard it simply as the result 
of the dissociation of the human mind, as an unhinging 
of the door of reason, letting in the delusory, dream- 
like flights of the subconscious. True it is that 
abnormal psychology has made great headway in ex- 
plaining these phenomena, and in treating them upon 
rational lines when once they have been discovered. 
The work of Dr. Morton Prince, in particular, must be 

* While these dangers of spiritism are admitted, and the prac- 
tice of dabbling in the subject by the public cannot be too 
strongly deprecated, this is, to my mind, only another argument 
in favor of the necessity of having regular, well-trained investi- 
gators to handle such cases when they come to light. A few men 
of well-balanced minds should be created lifelong investigators 
in this field — which has now become a specialty, just as any other 
— and they should be looked upon as recognized authorities, and 
their work accepted upon these problems just as the work of a 
physicist is accepted on a problem in physics. When will the 
public learn wisdom in this respect, and find out that every Tom, 
Dick, and Harry (who has read a few books or attended a few 
seances — and without any scientific equipment) is not entitled 
to a serious hearing upon this question any more than upon 
any other question in which special knowledge and training are 
required ? 

9 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

regarded as little short of epoch-making ; * his theory 
of "complex formation," analysis and synthesis of 
subconscious states, etc., is of great value, and calls 
for our sincere appreciation. At the same time, every 
student of psychic phenomena knows well enough 
that these explanations do not apply to many mani- 
festations which have been recorded in the past, and 
are still being recorded to-day. In addition to the 
work now being done by the abnormal psychologists 
there is another field which requires exploration also 
— the supernormal — and those who deny its existence 
simply show that they have not investigated long 
enough or carefully enough to discover it. I worked 
ten years in this field before I found my first genuine 
medium, presenting what I believed to be super- 
normal phenomena; but at length I discovered one, 
and to-day I do not think, I know, that telekinesis, 
clairvoyance, etc., are facts. No amount of argu- 
ment would influence me in the slightest, since I feel 
that I have simply seen more than those who have 
never witnessed such facts. Psychical research is, 
therefore, in my eyes, a legitimate science, and will 
one day be recognized as such by our universities. 

Yet, if these phenomena are facts, what a stupen- 
dous field is opened up before us! What a complex 
study; how unending, how real, how fascinating! If 

* See, in particular, his Dissociation of a Personality; the 
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, passim — the results of much of 
which have been popularly summarized by Coriat: Abnormal 
Psychology. 

lO 



INTRODUCTION 

these facts be true, what tremendous scientific im- 
portance they have! How they must extend our 
knowledge of human Hfe and its phenomena! What 
scientific theories must be evolved in the future to 
cover these facts! Yet I believe that the extension 
will not be so great as one commonly imagines; and, 
in any case, theory must always follow upon facts. It 
must be made to conform to and include them, and 
if one theory does not do so it must be discarded and 
another substituted which will. That is why many 
of us have urged discarding theories until the facts be 
adequately established. These once proved, theory 
can be adjusted to conform to them later. Let us 
have the facts, then, regardless of their interpretations. 
Science, to be impartial, must stand by its facts, no 
matter whether they conform to its idea of what is 
"possible" or not. 

And this brings me to an important point which I 
desire to emphasize. It is that although I disagree 
with Professor Flournoy in several of his views and 
his conclusions, I nevertheless should like to see this 
book widely circulated and read. Though I cannot 
agree with many of his conclusions, I yet believe that 
the method of the book is admirable, and will prove 
most helpful to all who read it. All possible aspects 
of a problem should be presented as forcibly as pos- 
sible, and only those who do not honestly desire the 
truth would wish to suppress such discussion. This 
book will doubtless give umbrage to many spiritists; 
they will consider it an attack upon their creed and 

II 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

their intelligence. I do not consider it as such; it 
merely emphasizes the high standards of evidence 
which must be maintained before spiritism stands 
proved, and points out how far short of this standard 
the majority of spiritists fall in accepting the phe- 
nomena they do as a proof of the spirit world. Let 
us have the truth at all costs — even if that truth be 
painful, and deprive us of a life beyond the grave, for 
which so many crave. 

Yet while Professor Flournoy is so skeptical of 
spiritism — of the intervention in our world of spirits 
from the beyond — he is, nevertheless, a doughty cham- 
pion of ''spiritualism" — the religio-philosophical doc- 
trine opposed to materialism, which contends that a 
spiritual world exists, and that we live after the disso- 
lution of the body and the apparent destruction of the 
human spirit at death. This is a curious paradox, 
to my mind, which is not altogether answered or 
elucidated in the final chapter, excellent as it is, on 
"Spiritism and Spiritualism." In spite of all the 
arguments advanced therein I cannot help but feel 
that, after all, these are but probabilities — ''mere 
presumptions in favor of a future life" — without af- 
fording us any real proof of its existence.^ And 
opposed to this ideal belief is the very palpable fact 
that life (so far as we know it in this universe) is in- 
variably bound up with a material organism, and is 

* Mr. Header and I have insisted upon this aspect of the problem 
over and over again in our Death: Its Causes and Phenomena, 
pp. 256-296, 394, 395. 517. etc. 

12 



INTRODUCTION 

inseparable from it; and that when this organism 
perishes at death the mental life becomes extinct 
also, just as all other bodily functions become extinct. 
Here are the brutal facts, and it is useless to oppose 
to them any religious or moral considerations. The 
fact remains, and even a proof of William James's 
theory of the " transmissi ve function" of the brain ^ 
raises only a possibility, a presumption, without sup- 
plying us with any proof. Proof can come only in one 
way — by the establishment of facts which can be ex- 
plained only by supposing that an intelligence is 
operative, distinct from that of the medium or any 
of the sitters present — an intelligence possessing 
memory and personal identity — i.e., a spirit. If such 
a fact were ever established, then a spiritual world of 
some sort would be proved, and scientific and philo- 
sophical conceptions would have to be remodeled to 
conform to it. But in view of the strength of the 
materialistic position it is hopeless in these days to 
try to establish the reality of a spiritual world in any 
other manner. 

Now, psychic phenomena would seem to give us 
just this proof, to establish this fact. Here we have 
direct proof, apparently, that a spiritual world exists; 
that life and thought can exist apart from body and 
organization; and if that were once admitted, there 
would no longer be any doubt that we survived 
the tomb, and entered a spiritual world, preserving 
at the same time our personality — our sentiments, 
* Human Immortality (Ingersoll lecture) . 

13 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

memories, and aspirations. But if this be true, it seems 
to many of us that the fact can somehow be estab- 
lished, must be estabHshed, and consequently we re- 
gard this science as "the most important in the 
world to-day," as Mr. Gladstone said, "by far the 
most important." 

But Professor Flournoy, who believes in the reality 
of a spiritual world, holds that spirit communica- 
tions have not been established. This is the curious 
part of this theory, to my mind. If we grant the 
existence of a spiritual world, in which intelligent 
beings reside, then, it seems to me, these spiritual 
beings have over and over again proved their identity 
as fully as — far more fully, indeed, than — we prove 
our own identity to one another over the telephone. 
Here the slightest hint, the smallest scrap of informa- 
tion, will suffice to establish the identity of the speaker 
at the other end of the line. Compared with such 
scanty evidence of personal identity how much more 
fully have the "communicators" in the Piper case, e.g., 
proved their existence to us! A thousand thousand 
times! And, as I see it, the only reason why we hesi- 
tate in the latter case and not in the former is because 
we have to prove, not only the identity of the speaker, 
but also his reality; not only that it is the voice of our 
friend which is talking, but that it is a human voice at 
all. This has been the classical argument against 
spiritism. It has been admitted over and over again 
that far better evidence of identity has been adduced 
through Mrs. Piper than by means of any ordinary 

14 



INTRODUCTION 

telephonic conversation, ''but," it is said, ''in the 
latter case we know that an intelligent operator is 
present; we do not have to prove that. But in the 
former case we have to prove the very existence of the 
intelligent operator; hence, the standard of evidence 
must be far higher." Admitted; for this very reason 
test after test has been devised — the "cross-corre- 
spondence" tests between mediums arranged, etc. 
It is the only logical reply to the position of skepticism. 
But inasmuch as Professor Flournoy admits the 
reality of the intelligent operator, he should require 
very little evidence to prove to him the personal 
identity of the speaker, certainly far less evidence 
than has been obtained in the past, and which he 
tries to dispose of so strenuously in Chapter V. 

It is interesting to note that Professor Flournoy, 
in Chapter VII, defends with some warmth and at 
considerable length the noted medium, Eusapia 
Palladino, who has been the subject of such careful 
investigation by scientific men in Europe for more 
than twenty years. It is very evident to any one 
reading this chapter that "materialization" is now 
accepted by those men who have studied her case at 
length as having been thoroughly established; and 
it is spoken of by them in the same matter-of-course 
fashion as telepathy, in dealing with the mental 
problems. The psycho-dynamic theory, worked out 
so skilfully by Professor Morselli, is considered by the 
majority of European savants as being the one most 

15 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

acceptable, and, the facts once established, is cer- 
tainly the only theory which adequately covers and 
explains them short of spiritism. But the fact re- 
mains that, no matter what theory be adopted, the 
reality of the facts is no longer questioned by them; 
they are established beyond doubt. 

It would be out of place for me to discuss at any 
length the case of this medium, whom I brought to 
America in 1909 for study, and who failed more or 
less completely to convince the American savants 
that she possessed supernormal powers. Both Eu- 
sapia and myself were the subjects of so much mis- 
representation, and my own reputation suffered so 
severely in consequence of my bringing her here, that 
it would be useless to attempt any extended defense 
in this place. I need only say that so far from having 
been completely "exposed" in this country — as the 
public imagines — she presented a large number of 
striking phenomena which have never been explained, 
and that only a certain number of her classical and 
customary tricks were detected, which every inves- 
tigator of this medium's phenomena had known to 
exist and had warned other investigators against for 
the past twenty years. No new form of trickery was 
discovered; only the old and well-known methods 
of trickery which we, in common with all her in- 
vestigators, knew all about, and of which I warned 
the sitters in a "Circular Letter," sent to them before 
Eusapia landed in this country, describing exactly her 
methods of trickery, and how to guard against them. 

16 



I 



INTRODUCTION 

Yet, in spite of thfs, when trickery was detected, all 
was disregarded, and the report spread broadcast 
that all her manifestations were the result of trickery. 
It would be difficult to imagine a more inconclusive 
and superficial examination than this in the whole his- 
tory of spiritism. 

Any one reading Professor Flournoy's book will see 
at a glance that this so-called American ** exposure" 
has not in the least influenced the European inves- 
tigators, who continue to regard her phenomena as 
supernormal and remarkable. To them the inves- 
tigation in this country betrayed the work of the 
novice who disliked his work and desired to be 
''through" with it as quickly as possible rather than 
that of the patient investigator who works for months 
and years ^ before publishing his report. As I have 
said elsewhere, in criticizing this investigation : 

''Such an investigation, such a method, might, 
perhaps, have been justified were it not for the fact 
that Eusapia Palladino came to this country with 
twenty years of scientific investigation behind her. 
If she had been an entirely new medium, about whom 
nothing was known, then such a method would have 
been far more justifiable. But inasmuch as this was 

^ The Psychological Institute, of Paris, worked with Eusapia 
Palladino for four years before publishing its report upon her 
case — so well analyzed by Professor Flournoy — in which it 
declares a number of her phenomena undeniably genuine. In 
America the investigators obtained two or three sittings (in some 
cases only one), and pronounced the whole case fraudulent on the 
strength of this examination! 

17 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

not the case, seeing that many men of scientific repute 
in Europe — who have studied her case carefully for 
years — had publicly stated their belief in her powers, 
seeing that they had done so in spite of her trickery, 
which was known to them also, and against which 
they warned all investigators, does it not appear 
irrational and superficial to pronounce the case 
fraudulent from start to finish on so brief an exam- 
ination? Is the presumption not, rather, that the 
American investigators have been too. hasty in their 
conclusions; that they did not investigate the case 
patiently and scientifically — as did their European 
confreres — before passing final judgment upon so 
important a matter?" 

I believe that future investigations will confirm 
this view of the case, if not with Eusapia (who seems 
to have lost her powers very largely), at least with 
other mediums, such as that of Mile. Tomczyk, dis- 
covered by Doctor Ochorowicz. Such cases as this — 
and the very striking personal experiments described 
in this volume by Professor Flournoy (in which a 
number of private persons moved objects without 
contact, after practice) — will serve to throw a back- 
ward light upon all these historical cases, and par- 
ticularly that of Eusapia, and will serve to indicate 
that such powers as those possessed by her are genuine 
and remarkable, and, when this has been accomplished 
(as I feel confident will be the case very shortly) , then 
the American investigators will feel with a sudden 
shock of remorse that they let slip through their 

i8 



INTRODUCTION 

fingers one of the most remarkable and phenomenal 
cases of the present century, and will upbraid them- 
selves for having allowed this extraordinary woman 
to leave American shores without adequate scientific 
investigation — without even attempting to study her 
in a laboratory, as she has been studied for years in 
Europe. If this does not bring home to them the 
keenest remorse and chagrin I can only say that it 
should, and I have nothing further to add! 

In conclusion I wish to say that I owe the greatest 
debt of gratitude — which I herewith tender — to my 
wife, Helen Wildman Carrington, who has helped me 
throughout in the task of translation and abridg- 
ment, and without whose valued assistance I should 
have been virtually unable to accomplish the task 
within the limited time at my disposal. To her 
equally belongs the credit for this translation, which, 
imperfect as it may be, nevertheless involved an 
immense labor. 

3 



I 

THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

I. THE ATTITUDE DOGMATIC AND THE ATTITUDE 

CRITICAL 

SPIRITISTS often reproach official science for its 
contempt of their phenomena and its obstinacy 
in refusing to investigate them. It is true that a 
great number of official savants — perhaps the majority 
— do not conceal their aversion to all that relates to 
occultism, and that, in certain countries, there reigns 
in the university spheres an atmosphere absolutely 
hostile to these researches. The majority of psychol- 
ogists will not touch upon the subject in their courses 
in the universities, or do so in an ironical and dis- 
paraging manner. For me, whom chance and cir- 
cumstances have made a ''professor" — in spite of a 
temperament desperately unofficial — I have not 
scrupled for twelve years to extend my lectures to 
cover telepathy and mediumship, and deal very 
seriously with the cases of Mrs. Piper and Eusapia 
Palladino, without, I believe, in any way swerving 
from truly scientific principles in doing so. But I 
recognize that in not rejecting, a priori, the possi- 

20 



« 



THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

bility of these phenomena and in deeming them 
worthy of study I find myself in disagreement with 
many of my colleagues in psychology. Impartiality 
decides me to give here a few quotations from their 
works, which it would be easy to multiply; two or 
three will, however, suffice. 

''The great Helmholtz," relates Professor Barrett,^ 
"said to me once that neither the evidence of all the 
members of the Royal Society nor the evidence of his 
own senses would ever make him believe in thought- 
transference, since thought-transference was im- 
possible." 

"An illustrious biologist," reports Professor James,^ 
"told me one day that even if telepathy were proved 
to be true the savants ought to band together to sup- 
press and conceal it, because such facts would upset 
the uniformity of nature, and all sorts of other 
things, without which the scientists cannot carry on 
their pursuits." 

One of the highest authorities of physiological psy- 
chology, and the founder, even, of the first laboratory 
of psychology (Leipzig, 1879), Professor Wundt, who 
was present many years ago at the seances of Slade, 
expressed himself in a manner more explicit still, 
saying that "no man of science, truly independent 
and without parti pris, could be interested in occult 
phenomena." 

And more lately Professor Miinsterberg wrote: 

^On the Threshold of a New World of Thought, London, 1908, 
p. 17. ^The Will to Believe, p. 10. 

21 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

*'. . . As to spirit communications, there are none, and 
there never will he any'' 

The reasons for such an attitude are many. Some 
are disdainful — for example, when we reproach the 
phenomena for occurring only in the presence of hys- 
terical and common people. Some are terrifying — ^when 
we declare that if they were real, this would upset the 
immutable laws of the universe, and be the ''death 
of all science and of all true idealism." Anything but 
that ! Some are profound and subtle, like the demon- 
strations, a priori, of the impossibility of these facts, 
by the aid of arguments drawn from philosophy, the 
theory of knowledge, etc. But all these objections, 
whatever may be their value, per se,^ seem to me to 
have a common trait, which is their awkward insta- 
bility. They naturally convince those who are al- 
ready convinced, but for the others they have just 
the contrary effect, suggesting to them the idea that 
if occult phenomena are so badly observed and con- 
demned so harshly by established science the sus- 
picion is aroused that there may be in them a grain of 
truth, and that it will be a troublesome day when 
this truth is demonstrated for science. 

^ This value is reduced to almost nothing when one examines 
these objections closely, and we remain astonished that serious 
men should have recourse to arguments of such a logical inanity. 
But it is explained when we remember the psychological motives 
which underlie them. These motives rely upon two very powerful 
tendencies of our nature: First, the intellectual need of the 
absolute, the definite, the immutable; the aversion of our under- 
standing for all that appears strange for us. Second, the instinct 
of self-preservation — individual or social. . . . 

22 



THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

It is certain that the authoritative dogmatism of so 
many of the great savants is accepted no more by our 
irreverent generation than by any other — by the calm 
and serious student no more than by the credulous 
spiritists or by the narrower occultists and mystics. 
As to these two extreme classes, the impartial spec- 
tator distrusts both, seeing under their arguments 
the same unconfessed but impassioned element — ter- 
rible fear on the one hand and intense desire on the 
other — of seeing certain facts force an entrance into 
science in order to be, henceforth, strengthened by its 
protection. Fanaticism and intolerance are such 
human snares that even superior minds often have 
much trouble in fighting against them; but when we 
find it in individuals of the highest scientific culture, 
far from adding to their prestige, it seems to be par- 
ticularly unpleasant in them, and illustrates a hidden 
streak of ridiculous smallness and pettiness. This is 
why, instead of thundering against ** superstition " — 
which frightens no one, and only adds to the attraction 
of "forbidden fruit" — it is my opinion that the official 
savants would be wiser, so far as they themselves are 
concerned, and more useful to humanity if they 
associated themselves with the contemporary psy- 
chical research movement, occupying themselves 
chiefly with maintaining its high standards of ex- 
perimental method without being in any way uneasy 
as to the results or its ultimate verdict. 

Let us take things at the worst, and suppose that 
(by reason of still more extraordinary cases, and 

23 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

especially better controlled cases than those we have 
seen up to the present) the intervention of the dis- 
carnate in our ordinary life be established. Does 
any one really believe that our established science 
would thereby be overthrown, and that it would not 
have sufficient suppleness to fall on its feet? As- 
suredly not! As one acute critic has said: "If it 
should some day be established that the intervention 
of spirits in our world were proved true, science 
would be the first to propagate and advance this 
truth, and would employ all her zeal in spreading 
this knowledge. The revolution which would result 
from it in our actual scientific conceptions would be 
far less than one believes — far less than that which 
was produced in bygone years by the views of Coper- 
nicus or Darwin, by their theories as to the nature of 
the universe. Our natural sciences can be adapted 
to everything, and they will digest, without difficulty, 
even the spirits of the spiritists on the day in which 
we are forced to admit them." 

To all this may be raised the objection that the 
principle of the conservation of energy does not allow 
us to postulate any external powers or influences 
affecting the workings of our closed system of the 
material universe, and the principle of parallelism or 
psycho-physical correlation, which does not admit of 
psychic life without a physical substratum or an 
organic correlative. Hence no spirits without bodies ! 
But this objection is not without its reply. In the 
first place, we are mistaken as to the value of our 

24 



I 



THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

great scientific axioms, intangible dogmas, which we 
have formulated to cover certain facts by pure 
logical necessity. In the second place, there is hardly 
any evidence, so far, that we shall ever have to tran- 
scend the law of conservation in order to explain all 
these facts, for, even if all the fantastic recitals of 
which spiritistic literature is full were true, there 
would be enough reserve of energy in the bosom of 
cosmic matter, as the physicists themselves have 
shown us, to furnish enough for all imaginable spir- 
itual entities or organisms, ordinarily invisible — 
perisprit, or astral bodies, etc. — which would permit 
them to enter into communication with us without 
offending any of the principles of conservation or of 
parallelism. We must not forget that spiritism is, 
in a sense, in the same relation to materialism as im- 
ponderable matter is to ponderable which falls under 
our sense observations. It will thus be seen that 
spiritism is really materialism, though its adherents 
give it quite another interpretation. Consequently, 
I do not see what is to hinder it from agreeing with all 
our fundamental conceptions of this universe; or, if 
you prefer it, what hinders them from being sufificiently 
enlarged, without changing their nature, to embrace 
all the spiritistic phenomena which we could wish on 
the day on which they are proved to be real. 

This is why I am astonished at the position taken 
by certain psychical researchers who admit the 
reality of supernormal facts, even materializations, 
yet indulge in a sort of censure of the interpretations 

25 



I 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

proposed, and absolutely exclude the spiritistic hy- 
pothesis as being absurd and inadmissible. I do not 
explain their parti pris otherwise than as a relic of 
dogmatism. If they are content to say that this 
hypothesis is, up to the present, inadequate, super- 
fluous, or insufficient in the presence of certain proved 
facts, they would be within their rights as impartial 
researchers; but they appear to me to weaken their 
position when they overgeneralize beyond their ex- 
periences, and seem to wish to foresee the verdict of 
the future. It would be far wiser to leave to future 
investigations the care either of definitely disprov- fl 
ing the spiritistic theory or of definitely confirming it. 
What sort of figure will these sworn enemies of 
spiritism cut if chance brings us to-morrow a new 
medium, producing phenomena of such a nature that 
we are forced to accept the spiritistic doctrine in place 
of the hidden and unknown powers of the medium? 
And, inasmuch as the case has not yet been by any 
means settled, why not show the spiritists the fairness 
— or the civility, even — of granting that their hy- 
pothesis is at least conceivable, without opposing to it 
the sentimental reasons which one may have against 
it (and no one more than myself) from various points 
of view — moral, religious, philosophical, social, etc.— 
since it contains nothing essentially anti-scientific or 
absurd? For myself, I see nothing at all to prevent 
our extending this tolerance far enough to accord to 
them the title which they claim — that it is a * ' working 
hypothesis," not, it is true, in the sense of a necessary 

26 



THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

supposition, such as our concepts of atoms, ether, 
etc., but in the sense of possible suppositions, though 
not yet demonstrated, which it is as well not to lose 
sight of — side by side with fraud, hallucination, and 
psychological processes, in the study of those trance 
phenomena which the past few years have seen mul- 
tiply in the pathway of science. 

As a model of fairness of ideas in this realm I shall 
recall the example of Thury at the beginning of his 
metapsychic studies, about half a century ago. 
After the famous experiments of movements of tables 
without contact. Count Gasparin wrote a celebrated 
book in which he supported the reality of the facts and 
the necessity of studying them, but in which he re- 
pudiated spiritism as "absurd" and "contrary to 
moral truth," such as he understood it. He certainly 
had a right to his personal opinion on this point, but, 
in making it intervene in a scientific question he 
showed himself to be dogmatic. Thury, however, 
represented on this occasion the serene impartiality of 
a mind truly critical; he refused to subscribe to the 
attacks of Gasparin against the spiritistic theory, and 
considered it his duty as a savant to affirm, on the 
one hand, "that the known facts are not as yet suf- 
ficient for the demonstration of this theory," and, 
on the other hand, "that the absurdity of the belief 
in the intervention of spirits has not been scientifically 
demonstrated." He contended that by abstaining 
from recognizing this last pointy and that by develop- 
ing a non-spiritistic theory of the phenomena in ques- 

27 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

tion, he might lead astray all the readers of his book] 
■ — if there should happen to be some truth in spiritism! 
after all. ''It would be bad logic," he once said, inj 
one of the pages which Gasparin wished him to mod- 
ify, "to affirm that we could never discover other 
wills than those of animals or men just because we 
have seen nothing here resembling them, for facts of 
this kind may have been observed, but not as yet 
scientifically demonstrated. ..." And he ended his 
brochure in this sentence, which has scarcely lost its 
meaning for us : * ' Whether they will or not, the savants 
must learn by means of their errors to suspend their 
judgment upon things which they have not sufficiently 
examined."^ 

If the critical attitude, such as I understand it and 
strive to practise (perhaps without success), implies 
the possible admission of all the facts, even the most 
absurd, it implies also an absolute submission to the 
rules and principles of experimental method. These 
rules and principles are, in general, admitted, and 
sometimes excellently formulated by the spiritists 
themselves when they discuss coldly the question of 
method; the unfortunate thing is that they forget 
them too easily in application. For to speak only of 
the principle of the economy of causes, which is capital 
when it concerns the interpretation of phenomena, ap- 
parently supernormal, I have found it recently stated in 
the clearest manner by M. Delanne (who is, it is true, 
one of the most scientific of the spiritists) . He writes : 

* Thury, Les Tables Tournantes, Geneva, 1855, p. 61. 

28 



I 



HE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

**The scientific method says that we should not 
Lppeal to new factors when those that we know suf- 
fice for an explanation of the facts." Now there is no 
rule which is more frequently disregarded in seances 
and by spiritists themselves than this. It is a fact 
that the theory and the practice of the spiritists (and 
what appears to me the only legitimate scientific 
method) are often quite opposed to each other. I 
could not better express the thing than by reproducing 
the following lines (from my reply to *'Autour," in 
which the spiritists of Geneva criticized my explana- 
tions in the case of Mile. Smith and tried to substitute 
theirs) : 

*'The method of reasoning adopted by the spiritists, 
startling as it is, might be summarized in two formulae : 

" I. Every time that a normal or a natural explana- 
tion of certain phenomena seems a little difficult, or as 
yet unknown, it must be admitted that this phe- 
nomenon is due to supernormal causes. 

"2. There are no other supernormal causes than the 
intervention of spirits. Hence all supernormal phe- 
nomena, i.e., those explained with difficulty, ought to 
be considered a proof of spiritism.'* 

It may be that many of the spiritists, taken in- 
dividually, would repulse these principles, or refuse 
to recognize them, under this brutal form, but what 
we claim is that they have tacitly inspired all the dis- 
cussions of *'Autour" bearing upon concrete facts, as 
every one can see by reading his work attentively. 

On the other hand, the method of reasoning upon 

29 



Ii 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

the same facts adopted by the psychologists can be 
condensed into the two following principles : 

1. We must not invoke a supernormal cause to 
explain a phenomenon until it has been thoroughly 
established that the phenomenon is not due to any 
normal cause. 

2. The intervention of the discarnate is only one 
of the conceivable forms of the supernormal; there 
are many others equally possible (telepathy, clair- 
voyance, unknown forces within our own organism, 
cosmic memory, etc.), so that in each particular case 
a special examination is necessary to decide whether 
a fact, supposedly proved to be supernormal, tells in 
favor of spiritism or not. 

''Between these two methods of reasoning it is not 
necessary to say which is the better from the scientific 
point of view."^ 

The spiritists will reply to me, perhaps, that in 
attributing all extraordinary phenomena to a single 
cause (spirits) their method is still more economical 
than mine, which postulates a crowd of supernormal 
causes. But this would be to forget the abyss which 
separates causes whose reality is already established 
from those which are purely problematical. And this 
shows exactly how much one can differ in the handling 
of principles upon which general opinion would seem 
to be necessarily unanimous. 

Thus, if an uneducated person who had never com- 
mitted verse to memory falls asleep and begins to 

*Flournoy, A propos d'un livre spirite, etc., June, 1901. 

30 




PROF. HENRY SIDGWICK 
(First President of the Society for Psychical Research.) 



4 



THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

write superb poetry, the spiritist concludes immedi- 
ately the presence of some superior mind — a poet or 
discarnate writer — who utilizes the medium as a sort 
of simple instrument. For myself, on the contrary, I 
conclude that this person possesses a talent as yet un- 
suspected, which, after a period of latent incubation, 
more or less lengthy, suddenly blossoms forth under 
favorable conditions. In the same way the physical 
phenomena seen at certain seances are attributed by 
the spiritists to inferior spirits, independent of the 
persons present, while I should consider it my duty 
first to attribute them to forces still unknown, but 
inherent in these persons themselves. For, rather 
than have recourse to the intervention of occult 
beings of whose nature we know nothing, it would 
always be more in conformity with the rules of 
science to admit that human beings have, in this life, 
forces and faculties which escape the observation of 
scientists, only being able to manifest under cer- 
tain circumstances. In other words, if the facts force 
the naturalist to admit new forces and causes in the 
universe, he is not thereby forced to admit the pres- 
ence of spirits or other beings unknown and intan- 
gible. To make this legitimate, since it is quite 
contrary to the principle of economy, it would be 
necessary to have special proofs, more convincing than 
those with which the spiritists are generally contented. 
I may say, in conclusion, that a critical attitude is 
essential in problems such as this. What I reproach 
the spiritists for is not that they believe in the in- 

31 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

tervention of spirits in their lives — perhaps in doing 
so they are nearer the ultimate truth than those who do 
not — but it is in imagining that their demonstrations 
are as yet scientifically established, when, as a matter 
of fact, they infringe, without modesty, the essential 
requirements of science. No one is obliged to play 
bridge or tennis, but if he does so he must observe 
the rules of the game. Science also is a game — per- 
haps the most difficult of all — but if one plays at it 
one must observe its laws, even if these latter are, in 
the last analysis, only conventions or prejudices 
destitute of absolute truth, and simply consecrated 
through usage by reason of their pragmatic utility. 

2. AN INQUIRY INTO MEDIUMSHIP 

Inasmuch as so little is known regarding medium- 
ship — its laws and limitations — it occurred to me that 
some light might be thrown upon these problems by 
distributing a circular letter, or "Questionnaire," 
among a number of persons who possessed medium- 
istic power, or who had experienced remarkable psychic 
experiences . In this manner it might be possible to study 
their phenomena and themselves in a manner slightly 
more detailed than had been attempted in the past. 

In order to accomplish this I prepared and widely 
distributed the following letter, to which I received a 
number of replies : 

QUESTIONNAIRE 

I . Do you possess mediumistic f acuities ? Describe not only 
the ordinary nature of your mediumship, but its exceptional 

32 



I 



THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

forms, and all the impressions, subjective and objective, which 
you have had in this domain. 

2. At what date and under what circumstances did you 
discover your mediumship ? Was it manifested spontaneously 
before you even heard such facts spoken of ? Was it assisted 
in its development by exterior circumstances, such as con- 
versations or readings upon the subject, spiritistic seances, 
experiments with other mediums, magnetization, imposition 
of hands, trials, and voluntary practices, etc. ? 

3. What modifications have your mediumistic powers under- 
gone with time? (Progress, changes of nature, weaknesses, 
momentary eclipses, etc.) To what causes or influences do 
you attribute these modifications? 

4. // you have not characteristic mediumship, have you ever 
had remarkable psychic phenomena, such as prophetic dreams, 
presentiments, voices, apparitions, ecstasies, inspirations, 
second-sight, etc. ? 

5. Have you had in your family any other persons (parents, 
grandparents, uncles or aunts, brothers or sisters) gifted with 
mediumistic powers, or who have experienced remarkable 
psychic phenomena? 

6. Have you been present at seances or psychic experiments, 
and what phenomena have you witnessed at them ? 

7. What have you observed in yourself or in others relative 
to the influence exercised upon mediumship by various phys- 
ical and mental conditions, such as age, sex, temperament, 
state of health or sickness, profession, life, marriage, mater- 
nity, changes of social position, emotions, etc. ? 

8. Inversely, what is the influence of mediumship upon the 
physical and mental health, upon life, character, ideas, health? 
Have you remarked whether mediums are distinguished 
from other persons by certain special characteristics other 
than the fact of their mediumship? 

9. What is your opinion or personal impression upon medium- 
istic phenomena? What, in your opinion, are their practical ad- 
vantages, or the reverse ? What do you think of spiritistic doc- 
trines ? Of what importance are they to your moral, religious, 
and mental life ? What ought to be their role in education ? 

33 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

[As the result of this "Questionnaire" seventy-two 
documents were received by Professor Flournoy, ar- 
ranged and studied by him. It is impossible to quote 
or even summarize these cases here, which should be 
read in the original in their extended form. The 
value of these cases varies much — some of them illus- 
trating merely credulity, others, on the contrary, 
presenting strong evidence for the supernormal . Some 
of them include records of seances, such as those 
formerly given by Home, Williams, etc. ; others nar- 
rate personal experiences of a striking nature, and, 
in several instances, the gradual development of 
automatic writing is most interestingly shown, with 
diagrams of the progress made each day in the writing. 
After enumerating these cases Professor Flournoy 
proceeds to devote a number of pages to their statis- 
tical and psychological study, the following extracts 
being the most important, it appears to me, of this 
portion of his volume:] M\ 

The seventy-two cases received by me comprise 
twenty-three men, aged from twenty-seven to seventy- 
one (average forty-nine and one-fifth years), and 
forty-nine women from fifteen to sixty-nine years 
(average forty-eight and one-fifth years). ... In 
spite of the fact that my collection of cases seems to 
show that mediumship is more common in women 
than in men, it appears to me that really good mediums 
are just as rare in the one sex as in the other — Stainton 
Moses and Mrs. Piper, Home and Eusapia Palladino|! 
etc. Let us now make a few general remarks upon_ 

34 



THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

the psychological characteristics presented by these 
cases. 

3. QUALITATIVE DIVERSITY OF MEDIUMISTIC 

PHENOMENA 

If we had for mediums, as for plants, a natural 
classification already established, we should only 
liave to classify our cases in various subdivisions; 
into classes, such as poorly developed mediumship, 
semi-developed cases, and finely developed mediums, 
etc. . . . Mediums, as such, are differentiated by 
their mediumistic powers, and as their mediumistic 
gifts are only tendencies made permanent — the 
habitual predisposition to present observable phe- 
nomena — it is upon the study of mediumistic phe- 
nomena that we must base definitely the classification 
of the mediums themselves. But these phenomena 
can be studied in themselves, detached from their liv- 
ing context and compared with one another without 
respect to the individuals through whom they occur. 
We are thus led to study (i) the qualitative classifica- 
tion of the phenomena, and (2) the clinical forms of 
mediumship. We must study both to arrive at a 
satisfactory determination of the natural types. Let 
us commence with the first of these. Considered in 
themselves, mediumistic phenomena present many 
aspects. I classify the principal types as follows: 

I. According to Supernormal Authenticity. This 
would enable us to distinguish true from pseudo- and 
false mediums — according to whether the phenomena 

4 35 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

have really their source (at least in part) in the be- 
yond, or whether they proceed entirely from the sub- 
ject himself — either consciously (by fraud) or sub- 
consciously, in a trance state. . . . 

2. According to their Intellectual Content or their 
Signification. The value of this varies enormously, 
but may be divided into two great classes, as follows : 

(a) The non-significant phenomena: simple ele- 
mentary ideas, noises, sudden lights, movements of 
the table, unintelligible scribbles of the pencil, move- 
ments of objects without contact, etc. It is not their 
content, but their production, which claims our at- 
tention in such cases, and confers upon them their 
value as psychic manifestations. . . . It is of interest 
to note that epileptic, hysterical, and other purely 
morbid phenomena have not once been mentioned in 
the cases sent to me, showing that such phenomena 
are now well enough recognized, even by the masses, 
to be left to the medical specialists, and are not re- 
garded by them as supernormal phenomena, calling 
for special investigation. 

(6) The significant phenomena — by reason of their 
content. These are the most numerous. . . . The 
essential feature is that the messages convey informa- 
tion to the medium and those present, of which the 
medium does not feel that he is the author. 

These may be divided into five categories: pro- 
phetic, telepathic, clairvoyant, inspiratory, and "effi- 
cient" phenomena; i.e., those in which the medium 
apparently breaks the ordinary laws of nature without 

36 



THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

suffering in consequence, produces "apports," is cured 
or cures others, etc. Under this heading may also be 
classed the physical phenomena. In most mediums 
two or more of these are combined, though there is 
to be noticed a tendency among mediums to "special- 
ize" in one particular direction. 

3. According to their Psychological Nature. Under 
this heading are both sensory and motor automatisms. 
We do not find any cases of gustatory phenomena, but 
a few olfactory, and several interesting specimens of 
tactile impressions — thermic, kinesthetic, etc. . . . 
Motor automatisms are most frequently manifested in 
table-tippings, automatic writing, tendencies to speak 
or to act, etc. In most cases these are mixed to a very 
great extent. There are also emotional phenomena 
in which the subject feels sad, depressed, inclined to 
weep, etc., perhaps receiving at the same time by 
some form of hallucination the news of the death of 
a near friend or relative. . . . We might include 
under this heading cases of sympathy, in which the 
mediums seem to feel the state of mind or the past 
sufferings of some dead person, which constitute, 
often, the first step toward true mediumship — these 
and the feelings of '*a presence," etc., form the transi- 
tion stage to the next group. These comprise phe- 
nomena of "intuition" — automatisms of an uncertain 
psychological nature. The subject knows that he is 
to receive a certain letter, hear a certain piece of news, 
etc. Next we have phenomena of ideation — scientific 
inspirations, literary, poetical, etc. Finally, we have 

37 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

the cases of so-called physical phenomena, which may 
be studied from a double point of view — that of purely 
objective facts, as phenomena, and as they appear 
and feel to the medium who produces them. 

4. According to the Condition of Personality in which 
they are Produced: perfect wakefulness, sleep (dream), 
and all the intermediary states, normal or abnormal, 
distraction and reverie; hypnogogic and dream-like 
states, complete and semi - somnambulism, trance, 
secondary states, total automatism, etc. 

5. According to their Utility for the Subject. These 
seem to be expressly destined to help and assist the 
medium, to counsel, warn, and direct him (teleological 
automatisms) — even to save life. Others, on the con- 
trary, are as plainly hostile, and pursue him with in- 
sults, threats, and deceptions. The greater part, 
finally, wish him neither good nor evil. 

6. According to their Dependence upon the Will. It 
goes without saying that mediumistic phenomena are 
always independent of it, are automatic, for if the 
subject produced them voluntarily, with full con- 
sciousness of being the author and initiator, he would 
attribute them to himself, like the rest of his acts in 
e very-day life. Nevertheless, the mental attitude seems 
to have an appreciable effect upon these phenomena — 
concentration, the passive attitude, etc., or even prayer. 

4. CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS OP MEDIUMSHIP 

I do not wish to insinuate by this term ''clinical" 
that mediumship is necessarily a disease, for few 

38 



THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

mortals, on the whole, have enjoyed better health and 
attained a greater age than certain illustrious me- 
diums — e.g., Swedenborg. I use the term, in default 
of a better, in its scientific sense, where ** clinical ob- 
servation" comprehends the complete study of the 
manner in which a disease begins, is evolved, and 
terminates in a particular case ; in the same way that 
medicine does not limit itself to note isolated symp- 
toms, but forces itself to follow morbid processes in 
their progress, and even prolongs its researches beyond 
its apparent boundaries, going back to its antecedents 
and the hereditary traits of the disease; on the other 
hand, following it, if possible, into its future ramifica- 
tions and consequences. In order to understand 
mediumship, therefore, we should not study detached 
phenomena, but see it unroll itself in all its continuity 
in the individuals who possess it. Let us consider a 
few points which have been brought to light as the 
result of my inquiry. 

Heredity. — The most striking case of this character 
which I have encountered is that of Mme. Guelt, in 
which parapsychic ^ gifts and tendencies were mani- 
fested in four generations of her family. 

Her maternal grandfather, who lived in a little vil- 

* Professor Flournoy prefers the term "parapsychic " to "meta- 
psychic," proposed by Richet; or simply "psychic" — the term 
usually used in Anglo-Saxon countries. The word was proposed 
nearly twenty years ago by Boirac. It would be well, Professor 
Flournoy thinks, to limit Richet's term, "metapsychic," to those 
phenomena which have been definitely proved supernormal in 
character. — Tr. 

39 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

lage in the canton of Vaud, had attacks of somnam- 
buHsm. For example, he had the care of the keys of 
the church steeple (because he lived very near the 
church), and one night, in his sleep, rang the bells, 
which awoke the whole village without waking him- 
self. After this the keys of the steeple were taken 
away from him. Her mother was very intuitive and 
sensitive. Her father had the power of curing people. 
The people came to consult him for fractures, for 
sprains, shocks, etc.; he remained for one moment 
immovable in prayer, then made passes over the 
sick person. Mme. Guelt herself has been reproached 
for not having developed this gift of cure. Her 

Maternal Grandfather 
(a Somnambule) 



Mother Father 

(Intuitive) (Healing Medium) 



Elder Brother Mme. Guelt Younger Brother 
(Physician and Chemist) (Medium) (Somnambule) 

r - 

Elder Daughter Younger Daughter Son 

(dead) (aged 30 years) (aged 26 years) 

All three somnambules in their childhood 

elder brother, who was devoted to science, does not 
appear to have presented any phenomena of this kind, 
but her younger brother was a somnambulist. He 
used to clothe himself in his military uniform at night 

40 



THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

or work in the fields without knowing it. Finally, 
her three children have been somnambules. Her 
youngest daughter, who died at the age of fourteen, 
arose and put on her clothes one night in her sleep, 
which terrified her parents ; they consulted the famous 
magnetizer La Fontaine, who lived in the same house, 
and he advised them never to wake their child abruptly 
during her attacks of somnambulism. Her other 
daughter, at the age of fifteen, clothed herself and 
walked out upon the stairs, saying she was "going to 
school." Her son, also, having gone to bed, some- 
times went to the shop, still fast asleep. (These two 
last children, to-day very healthy, do not interest 
themselves in spiritism. Her husband, M. Guelt, has 
experienced no phenomena of this nature.) 

There is no doubt that the predisposition toward 
psychic phenomena is in the highest degree hereditary. 
But when one remembers how difficult it is to trace 
hereditary characteristics in any case it may well be 
understood how difficult it is in such a case as this ^ 
for the transmission of a thing so nebulous, elastic, 
and protoform as mediumship. 

The Appearance of Mediumship. — Some people have 
experienced spontaneous phenomena since childhood. 

* For a discussion of this question of psychical heredity see the 
following references, among others: 

Journal, S. P. R., Vol. I, p. 351; III, 355, 356, 358; IV, 229, 
230, 276, 292; V, 10; VII, 4; VIII, 264; IX, 122, 266, 267. 
Proceedings, IV, 162, 165; V, 309; VI, 242; VII, 103, 104, 106, 
343; VIII, 352,353, 357; X, 154-159, 214, 350, 371; XI, 348-351, 
442, 491. Old Amer. Proceedings, 312, 397, 484, 487, 494, 522, 
540, etc. — Tr. 

41 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

With them mediumship is constitutional and con- 
genital; their later initiation into spiritism furnishes 
them nothing essentially new, and only increases the 
exuberance of their automatic life, or opens up to 
them channels of specialized discharge, such as writing 
or typtology. But these ''mediums by birth," so to 
say, are in the minority. The greater part of our 
mediums have become so at a later date and by reason 
of their environment; their powers have been ac- 
quired, and merely presuppose a latent predisposi- 
tion. Some can never become mediums no matter 
how much they may desire it, while others acquire 
mediumship slowly, and after great effort and in- 
finite patience on their part. 

The Duration of Mediumship. — Swedenborg, hav- 
ing become a psychic at fifty-five years of age, re- 
mained so until his death, nearly thirty years later. 
Mrs. Piper and Eusapia Palladino preserved their 
powers for more than twenty years. With Stainton 
Moses, on the contrary, he maintained his mediumship 
eleven years only (from thirty-three to forty-four 
years of age) , and he lived nine years after the loss of 
all his powers. That is to say, mediumship is of 
variable duration. ... It is the same with con- 
genital mediums; their power may be prolonged to 
the end of life or disappear at any period. . . . How 
many children have fits of somnambulism or waking 
visions, and seem predestined to become excellent 
mediums, but do not do so at all, the strengthening 
of their health having, by degrees, effaced this pre- 

42 



THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

disposition to automatism and unified their per- 
sonality. . . . 

As to the influence of various physical and mental 
conditions upon the exercise of mediumship, my cor- 
respondents are unanimous in condemning, as absolute 
hindrances or at least grave obstacles to the produc- 
tion of phenomena, all such causes as physical ex- 
haustion, and especially the psychical causes — dis- 
turbing emotions, uneasiness, absorbing thoughts, 
fatigue, innervation, etc. To sum up, the conditions 
required for the successful exercise of mediumistic 
powers are the same as for the voluntary exercise 
of any other power — a state of good health, nervous 
equilibrium, calm, the absence of cares, good humor, 
sympathetic surroundings, etc.^ Several of the letters 
insist upon moral elevation, purity of conduct, noble 
aspirations, altruism, etc., saying that these things 
strengthen mediumship, while the lower sentiments, 
such as cupidity, pride, jealousy, etc., are the cause 
of much loss of power. Others have insisted that 
certain physical conditions have a propitious effect — 
silence, semi-obscurity, good ventilation, fasting, etc. 
We must add here that the inhibitions due to fatigue, 
cares, and emotions do not concern spontaneous 
phenomena, which, on the contrary, often appear to 
occur under the stimulus of organic and mental 

^ From this it may be seen a little m.ore clearly, perhaps, why 
Eusapia Palladino failed to convince the conjurors and skeptics 
in this country, when practically all these conditions were denied 
her or were absent. — Tr. 

43 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

troubles, their mission seeming to be to convey to the 
medium a remedy or a consolation. 

Influence of Mediumship upon Character. — On this 
point there are very different views. If we believed 
some, mediumship possesses a marvelous power of 
transformation, the activity, powers, sentiments of 
the whole being become expanded ; it impregnates the 
whole life and conduct of every day with the most 
precious virtues — goodness, charity, devotedness, 
courage or resignation, consecration to duty, tolerance 
and breadth of ideas, joy and constant serenity, 
confidence in the future, and a profoundly religious 
sense of our existence. 

According to others, on the contrary, mediums are 
generally bilious, jealous, susceptible, proud, etc. 
In short, the picture of them which is drawn 
is that of the typical hysteric. It is obvious that, 
in view of this great diversity of opinion, no 
definite and lasting agreement can as yet be 
reached. 

Termination of Mediumistic Power. — As I have said 
before, this varies greatly. Some mediums retain 
their powers all their lives. Others, on the contrary, 
lose them after a longer or shorter period, while in 
many cases — such as that of Eusapia Palladino — it is 
gradually lost over a period of years, or, on the con- 
trary, suddenly wrecked by harsh methods of ex- 
perimentation — as in the case of Mrs. Piper. On the 
whole, it may be said that the length of time in which 
mediumship is preserved by mediums is so varied that 

44 



THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

no definite limit may be set in the present state of our 
knowledge. 

Natural Types of Mediums. — Besides those cases of 
remarkable and powerful mediums who have in- 
herited their mediumistic power or who have it all 
their lives, there are also mediums who develop it late 
in life, and who, after practising mediumship for some 
time, discard it as useless or valueless in their own 
case. A typical example of such a medium would be 
about as follows: 

A person, ordinarily of the feminine sex, who has 
never experienced psychic phenomena (except, per- 
haps, a little somnambulism or day-dreams and some 
presentiments), experiences a great sorrow, such as 
the death of a dear one, and soon after attends a 
seance for the first time. She tries the table or auto- 
matic writing. Rapidly she becomes a typtological 
medium, or automatic writer, and obtains commu- 
nications which do not surpass, in any way, her own 
capabilities, but which strike her and enchant her in 
the beginning by reason of their so-called emanation 
from the dead. Little by little, however, the monotony 
of the messages, their intrinsic mediocrity, the rarity 
or even the absence of all proof convincingly super- 
normal, sometimes the obsessional or lying character 
of the pretended revelations, deprive her of her first 
enthusiasm, and at the end of some months, or even 
years, the medium ceases to practise. Nothing is 
usually left to her either of good or evil as the result 
of this ** phase" of mediumship except a certain 

45 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

latent predisposition which renders her capable of 
practising mediumship with more or less ease when- 
ever she tries; and at the basis of her nature a real 
inclination for spiritistic doctrines, with the desire to 
see them one day scientifically demonstrated. 

CONCLUSION 

There are some who find a real and daily satisfac- 
tion in conversing, by means of the table or the pen, 
with their departed relatives or friends, but for the 
great majority it is hardly so. What touches them 
personally in spiritism and matters the most for them 
is not the phenomena, but the teaching (said to be 
scientifically grounded) of the future life, in opposition 
to materialism, which denies it ; to skepticism, which 
doubts it, or to religion, which makes it the object of a 
faith, always wavering. It is clear that this teaching, 
in order to have the character of absolute scientific 
certitude, implies experimental demonstrations — con- 
crete and tangible proofs of the intervention of spirits 
in our world. But for the greater number of spirit- 
ists, this is already proved, for cultured people, just as 
much as the rotation of the earth; it is not necessary 
for every one to experiment and verify for himself 
these phenomena; it is sufficient to know that this 
has already been done — that is to say, they exist in 
the impersonal arsenal of science, where they are 
always available, to convince the incredulous. Were 
it not for the purpose of polemics and proselytism we 
should never have need to resort to spirit manifesta- 

46 



THE STUDY OF THE SUPERNORMAL 

tions, because that which Hves really is not the facts 
themselves, but the grand verities — philosophical and 
moral — which are deduced from them. In short, as 
one of my correspondents has excellently expressed 
it: '*In spiritism the doctrine is everything: one can 
be a good spiritist without ever having seen phe- 
nomena; and these latter should never be sought for, 
except for the purposes of propaganda." 

Needless to say, this is an attitude which psychology 
and modern science cannot share. My own reasons 
for thinking so are outlined in the chapters which 
follow. 



II 

F. W. H. MYERS AND SUBLIMINAL PSY- 
CHOLOGY 

I. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 

FREDERIC MYERS (1843-1901) was one of 
the most remarkable personalities of our time in 
the realm of mental science. ' ' Dictionaries of Celeb- 
rities" may have some difficulty in classifying him. 
By his studies and his professional occupations^ he 
belonged to literature ; he was a profound connoisseur 
of classical antiquity, an essayist delicate and pene- 
trating, a poet of high inspiration, and at his death 
he left a mass of literature which would have suf- 
ficed — according to competent judges — to assign him 
a place among the first writers of his time^ if the 
employment of his leisure and the flights of his genius 
had not already rendered him more illustrious as a 
"psychical researcher." This category has not as yet 
figured in the classification of great men, but it will 
be necessary some day to introduce it, and Myers was 

* Myers conscientiously fulfilled for almost thirty years the 
functions of inspector of schools at Cambridge. 

2 Doctor Leaf compares him to Ruskin, and considers him in 
some respects his peer. 

48 




MR. FREDERIC W. H. MYERS 



SUBLIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY 

the typical representative of this class — the most com- 
petent example, and, one might almost say, its true 
creator. He himself would not have admitted this, 
and, with his usual modesty, would have given the 
honor to his master, Henry Sidgwick, or his friend, 
Edmund Gurney, or to his numerous collaborateurs. 
But, in reality, in reading the works of Myers one is 
placed au courant with his career, and gains the im- 
pression that it is he himself who was the soul, the 
center, the supreme motive force in this scientific 
movement, founded to investigate those debatable 
phenomena which lie on the border-line of science, and 
which form the subject-matter of the investigations 
of the Society for Psychical Research. 

It is to be hoped that some day a friendly pen will 
write the biography of Myers and the evolution of his 
thought. Meanwhile let us content ourselves with 
some sidelights which he has left us upon his thought 
and work. 

Brought up in the English Church, he was a faith- 
ful member — "aggressively orthodox," to use his own 
words — until the age of that inevitable crisis, when, 
torn between an inextinguishable desire for certainty 
of a future life, and the inevitable weakening of his 
faith in traditional dogma, as well as in philosophical 
speculation, he went to confide his interior perplexi- 
ties to Professor Sidgwick: ''In a starlight walk 
which I shall not forget (December 3, 1869), I asked 
him, almost with trembling, whether he thought that 
when tradition, intuition, metaphysics had failed to 

49 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY « 

resolve the riddle of the universe there was still a 
chance that from any actual observable phenomena — 
ghosts, spirits, whatsoever there might be — some 
valid knowledge might be drawn as to a world un- 
seen. Already, it seemed, he had thought that this 
was possible ; steadily, though in no sanguine fashion, 
he indicated some last grounds of hope, and from that 
night onward I resolved to pursue this quest — if it 
might be, at his side." 

This was the third of December, 1869. Myers was 
twenty-six years old. The primary aim of his life 
was henceforth fixed — the road which he had to 
travel for the third of a century — to the very end of 
his last breath, with an indomitable energy — viz., to 
search in those abnormal and occult phenomena, dis- 
dained by official science, for proofs of facts in some 
measure tangible and irrefragible, of the spiritual 
nature of the soul, of its independence of the organ- 
ism, of its survival after corporeal death. He pro- 
posed, in other words, to establish the certainty of 
another world, of another life — "the preamble of all 
religions" — no longer, as in the past, on the uncer- 
tain dogmas of the articles of faith or of abstract 
reasoning, but upon the unshakable foundation of an 
experimental demonstration rigorously scientific. 

The undertaking was not easy. It was essential to 
have a strong heart and a well-balanced judgment to 
penetrate this medley of mysterious phenomena, where 
fraud, obscurity, illusion, repulse the seeker at every 
step. "But," as Richet remarked, "if Myers were 

so 



SUBLIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY 

not a mystic, he had all the faith of a mystic and the 
ardor of an apostle, in conjunction with the sagacity 
and precision of a savant." The greatness of his 
effort — such as he conceived it — the vital importance 
which it assumed in his eyes, for the happiness and 
salvation of humanity sustained him. He said that 
if a spiritual world ever manifested to man, it must 
manifest now; and that, in consequence, a serious 
investigation must end by discovering some unmistak- 
able signs of it in these obscure and rare phenomena. 
For, ' ' if all attempts to verify scientifically the inter- 
vention of another world should be definitely proved 
futile, this would be a terrible blow, a mortal blow, 
to all our hopes of another life, as well as to traditional 
religion," for "it would thenceforth be very difficult 
for men to be persuaded, in our age of clear thinking, 
that what is now found to be illusion and trickery was 
in the past thought to be truth and revelation." 

In order to understand the work of Myers it is 
necessary to remember this moral and religious side 
of his nature, this emotional strain, profoundly hu- 
man, which was the fundamental note of his person- 
ality, the spring of all his intellectual activity. By 
means of intense application, seconded by an enor- 
mous power of work and exceptional brilliancy, he 
nevertheless forced himself to become the rigorous 
scientist; and in biology, psychology, and other 
sciences he possessed almost the knowledge of a 
specialist — added to which was a breadth of view, 
a vastness of horizon, great culture, and a daring 

^ 51 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

originality in philosophical thought — which is, alas, 
so lacking in many of our contemporary savants, who 
believe in the virtue of diplomas, or that they have 
reached the goal of their life and ambition because 
they have performed some novel experiments in a 
laboratory. But with Myers, though he became a 
savant, he was before all a complete man, vibrating 
with lofty aspirations, thirsty for absolute certainty 
of infinite affection and of life eternal ; and, one might 
almost say, it was the ardent need of belief in him 
which brought forth in him this feeling of the neces- 
sity for knowledge. 

During the early years of his work the efforts of 
Myers and Sidgwick were directed to cases of psychics 
and mediums such as they could find. These were 
crowned with but moderate success, and they often 
turned from the quest in disgust. The early years 
seem to have left upon them a very discouraging im- 
pression.* But things took a better turn with the 
founding of the Society for Psychical Research (S. P. R.) 
in 1882, when a galaxy of brilliant and distinguished 
men — professional savants and intellectual amateurs 
— were united, under Professor Sidgwick^ as presi- 
dent, in the thought of applying scientific methods to 
the study of all these obscure phenomena — mes- 
merism, spiritism, apparitions, etc. Myers (who oc- 

* "Tiresome and distasteful enough," said Myers, in speaking of 
his researches at this time (1872-76). 

2 Professor Sidgwick was for many years professor of moral 
philosophy in Cambridge, and the author of several standard 
works on ethics, political economy, etc. 

52 



SUBLIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY 

cupied the weighty position of honorary secretary 
after the death of Gurney, in 1888) showed at once 
an immense activity. Of the sixteen volumes of 
Proceedings pubHshed in his Hfetime there is not one 
which does not contain many important articles from 
his pen, without mentioning his participation in the 
celebrated work Phantasms of the Living, which con- 
tributed so much to awaken public interest. He 
also contributed largely to periodicals on the subject, 
such as the Fortnightly Review, the Nineteenth Century, 
etc} To appreciate the enormous amount of energy 
which these writings imply, we should remember that 
many of them signify a vast amount of preliminary 
work— innumerable experiments and seances with 
mediums, examination and verification of documents, 
journeys, correspondence, etc. It was this kind of 
research which was needed in the existing state of 
apathy of the public; and that he undertook it, en- 
countering often the ill-will of those whose cases he 
investigated, betokens rare qualities of will, tenacity 
of purpose, and perseverance, which Myers must have 
possessed in a high degree.^ Without doubt he was 

^ Many of these essays were afterward, collected in his volume 
Science and a Future Life, and Other Essays, London, 1893. 

2 1 vividly remember one interesting trip in April, 1892, when 
I had the good fortune to take an Alpine tour with Myers and his 
brother, the late Dr. A. T. Myers, and Prof. William James, of 
Harvard. When climbing the mountain, psychology, as may well 
be imagined, was not forgotten in our conversations, and it hap- 
pened that I quoted some phenomena of mental imagery in my- 
self which I had noted. Myers saw in these recitals some possible 
support for his theories, and that evening, when we had arrived 
at the hotel and I was relaxing after our long climb, thinking only 

53 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

admirably seconded by his colleagues in the S. P. R. 
but his were the hands which finally wove togethei 
the threads of the vast network of the investigation, 
and it was upon his shoulders that the principal bur- 
den lay. He played a large part, moreover, in or- 
ganizing the International Congress of Psychology! 
especially that held in London in 1892, of which he 
was the general secretary. He was able to assist at 
the Congress of Psychology (April, 1900), and to 
present there the account of his experiences with 
Mrs. Thompson, who had finally confirmed him in 
his beliefs. 

After having been for so many years at this work, 
Myers was finally honored. The S. P. R. called him, 
in 1900, to the presidential chair, reserved for pro- 
fessors or savants of the highest renown; Sidgwick, 
Balfour Stewart, A. J. Balfour, William James, and Sir 
William Crookes having preceded him. Alas, he did 
not long enjoy this distinction — one which he con- 
sidered less a homage to himself than as a recognition 
of this young science which he had helped to create 
and to which he had given the best part of his life. 
But his strength was waning, and some months later 

of how soon I could get to my bed, this awful man placed in my 
hands a piece of paper and a pencil, and would allow me no rest 
until I had written out my experiences in full, which he afterward 
incorporated in one of his articles on the *' Subliminal Conscious- 
ness." I should like to add that this tenacious will — almost 
imperious — of Myers was equaled by a nobility of character, a 
moral elevation of purpose and of feeling, which all who came 
into contact with him perceived and retained as a lasting and 
imperishable memory. 

54 



SUBLIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY 

(January 17, 1901) feeling his task achieved, he 
closed his eyes to the light of this world with the 
serenity of a man who has become absolutely certain 
of the existence of a future life — better than that, in 
the joy of a departure long expected and for which he 
had been waiting impatiently. As he wrote to one 
of his friends, ''I am counting the days until the 
holidays." 

2. THE POSTHUMOUS VOLUME OF MYERS * 

As a crown of his life and of his work Myers left a 
manuscript, including, in a condensed and more sys- 
tematical form than his former works, the result of his 
thirty years of labor. While unfinished, this post- 
humous work, the publication of which we owe to 
the pious care of Dr. Richard Hodgson and Miss Alice 
Johnson, is, however, well enough developed in its 
broad outlines for us to have a good idea of the com- 
plete thought of the author. His endeavor was to 
synthesize religion and science. . . . His book is 
divided into eight chapters, which are grouped, as it 
were, in twos, by virtue of their contents (*' Disin- 
tegrations of Personality," especially Hysteria, and its 
extreme opposite, "Genius"; ''Sleep" and "Hypno- 
tism" ; ' ' Sensory Automatism, " and " Phantasms of the 
Dead"; "Motor Automatism," and "Trance, Ecstasy, 
and Possession"). This represents a gradation by 
which Myers rises from morbid facts — w^hich support 

^ Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death, London 
and New York, 1903 (2 vols.). 

55 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

his conception of our fundamental psychological] 
structure — to the point where his demonstration cul-| 
minates in the experimental manifestations of the 
discarnate and the phenomena of trance and posses- 1 
sion. 

It may be necessary here briefly to recall the cen- 
tral idea which he holds of our constitution. 

For Myers, each of us is, in reality, a spiritual and 
permanent entity — let us say a ''soul" — of which our 
ordinary personality, our conscious self, is only a 
small fragment which has been selected or differen- 
tiated from the remainder by the struggle for existence 
in the course of organic evolution on this planet. To 
use his favorite comparison : Just as the visible region 
of the solar spectrum, which is limited, is prolonged 
at either end — at one, as the infra-red rays; at the 
other, as ultra-violet — so our ordinary consciousness, 
the supraliminal consciousness— constitutes a small 
portion of our being best adapted to the actual 
conditions of terrestrial life, and our subliminal con- 
sciousness possesses two kinds of faculties which we 
have not at our voluntary disposal. These are, on 
one side, inferior faculties which belonged to our 
animal ancestors, but which our conscious personality 
has lost in the course of evolution, such as the power 
to direct and modify at will the physiological func- 
tions, nutrition, secretion, growth, etc. On the other 
side, there are superior faculties relating to an en- 
vironment or to a mode of existence which is extra- 
terrestrial and of which our body does not permit us 

56 



SUBLIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY 

the free exercise, but which appear occasionally, in 
flashes — in the supernormal phenomena of clairvoy- 
ance, lucidity, prophecy, etc. Our real individuality, 
our complete and total self — our soul, in a word — in- 
finitely surpasses what is revealed to the empirical 
consciousness in the waking state; on one side we 
plunge our roots into the obscure intimacy of our tis- 
sues and our organic functions, and we participate, on 
the other hand, in a higher order of phenomena — of a 
metethereal world, as Myers called it — that is to say, 
transcendental and spiritual, existing beyond this 
universe and bathed in the ether of the physicists. 

We must further note that between our ordinary 
consciousness (the supraliminal) and our latent con- 
sciousness (the subliminal) there are perpetual changes 
and fluctuations along their border; the level of 
separation is not constant; the partition is not im- 
pervious; the threshold is not fixed between these 
parts of our being ; there occur phenomena of osmosis 
from one to the other, of mingling, as between liquids 
of varying density, when the bottle is shaken. Con- 
stantly, e.g., we forget many things, only to see them 
reappear in a dream or access of fever, which proves 
that these memories were not lost, but only passed 
from the conscious self into the subliminal memories. 
And constantly, also, messages are sent from our 
subliminal regions to our personal consciousness, 
carrying with them, in the most diverse forms (as 
sensory automatisms) contents of the most varied 
value — visual hallucinations, auditory hallucinations, 

57 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

submerged ideas, emotions, irrational impulses, etc. 
Sometimes insignificant reminiscences or future ca- 
prices of the imagination are thus sent; sometimes 
inspirations of genius and veridical revelations which 
defy all scientific explanation and which indicate the 
existence of supernormal faculties by reason of which 
we belong to a metethereal or transcendental world. 
In short, human personality is, so to say, composed of 
an infinite number of strata, of which the upper strata, 
which pass singly into the light of our ordinary con- 
sciousness, rest upon hidden and still deeper strata, 
which in turn reach down to mysterious depths and 
enable us to communicate with unsuspected realms. 
But all these strata are of a nature more or less fluid 
and permit currents of exchange between them, inter- 
penetration or invasion one by another. And the 
geological accidents on the crust of the earth are not 
more formidable in their way than the cataclysms 
which sometimes destroy the psychic equilibrium, 
metamorphosing the individual, and causing changes 
of identity, etc. But we must not press these various 
analogies, to which Myers had recourse to illustrate 
his idea of the subliminal self and of its relations to 
the ordinary self too far. Metaphors must not make 
us forget the nature of the facts themselves. 

Let us return now to the argument of the author. 
Disintegrations of personality — that is to say, obses- 
sions, fixed subconscious ideas, hypnoid phenomena, 
secondary states of consciousness, and other condi- 
tions of psychological disruption which medical ob- 

58 



SUBLIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY 

servations have proved to exist for some years past — 
all these strange psychic alterations are easily ex- 
plained by the theory of the subliminal consciousness, 
which at the same time bespeak in its favor. One 
sees, indeed, that if the ordinary self is only a frag- 
ment — a portion, more or less mobile and unstable, 
of a larger individuality from which it is differentiated 
— it might undergo a regressive process, inverse to 
the process of evolution which gave birth to it. Mor- 
bid cases of degeneration thus afford another proof 
of his doctrine of the constitution of our being; and 
the degree of rapport, constantly varying, which 
might exist between our various personalities in the 
subjacent strata, appear to him to offer a psycho- 
pathological explanation which is not wanting in 
originality. It is thus that hysteria, in particular, 
suggested to him the idea that it consisted of "an 
exaggerated penetrability of the psychical dia- 
phragm" — creating a state of great confusion between 
the ordinary self and certain diseased strata, which 
assume certain functions which ought to be per- 
formed by the former, and impose on them, in revenge, 
their irrational auto-suggestions. This psychological 
conception of this major neurosis, developed by 
Myers in 1892, in consequence of the early work of 
Pierre Janet, permitted him to see in hysteria a 
morbid condition of the hypnotic stratum — instead of 
making hypnotism a part of hysteria, which was the 
usual view at that time. 
Genius, in its turn, rests also upon an exceptional 

59 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

permeability of the psychical diaphragm; but this is 
now between the ordinary self and subliminal strata 
which are sound and healthy, sometimes endowed 
with supernormal faculties, which erupt into the or- 
dinary personality, to its great advantage, accom- 
plishing results which it would have been incapable of 
performing itself. As a typical example of this view, 
Myers insisted that arithmetical prodigies are ex- 
amples of this uprush, and that selection and heredity 
are powerless to explain these phenomena. He held 
that "biological variation" is only a subterfuge em- 
ployed to conceal our ignorance of subliminal activi- 
ties and powers, until now incomprehensible. The 
Platonic theory of remembrance might have ex- 
plained them by the memory of the multiplication 
table learned in some former existence. Without 
going so far as that, Myers sees in them a proof that 
we belong, in our subliminal consciousness, to some 
invisible world where the multiplication table is, so 
to say, "in the air." All that spontaneous variation 
does is to cause an accidental manifestation, through 
certain privileged organisms, of these latent mathe- 
matical faculties, which the struggle for existence, in 
the course of this planetary evolution, has not yet 
developed in our supraliminal consciousness, but 
which subsists, none the less, in the subjacent parts 
of our being, ready to surge upward as soon as a 
favorable cerebral change furnishes the occasion for 
it. This chapter of Myers is certainly one of the 
most remarkable and the strongest of his work, be- 

60 



SUBLIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY 

cause it makes one feel the insufficiency — one might 
almost say the foolishness — of all the "naturalistic" 
explanations which have been advanced up to the 
present to explain genius. 

Sleep naturally supplies to Myers a rich harvest 
of facts in support of his doctrine. He sees there a 
phase of a special state in which our being, abandon- 
ing its supraliminal functions, recruits its strength in 
the metetheric world, the source of all energy.^ Thus 
is explained on the one hand the effect of this mar- 
velous recuperation — the general vitalization of the 
organism — which is the property of sleep, and, on the 
other hand, the occasional appearance of faculties 
superior to those of the waking state, which one ob- 
serves so often in dreams or hypnotic phenomena, in 
excitations of memory, imagination, even in reason- 
ing, and sometimes the appearance of supernormal 
phenomena, prophetic dreams, revelations, etc. All 
these extraordinary facts seem to indicate ''that the 

* This is almost exactly the idea which I advanced, from the 
physiological standpoint, in my Vitality, Fasting, and Nutrition 
(p. 309). I there said: "... Sleep is that physiological condition 
of the organism in which the nervous system of the individual 
(in precisely the same manner as the electric storage battery) is 
being recharged from without, by the external, all-pervading, 
cosmic energy in which we are bathed and in which we live and 
move and have our being." In fact, the theory of human vitality 
which I there advanced, and its relation to the bodily organism 
(pp. 225-303), is virtually an application of James's "transmis- 
sion theory" of consciousness (see his Human Immortality) to the 
whole of our life and vital energy. And I showed in considerable 
detail that such a theory conforms to all the known facts of phy- 
siology as well as explaining many facts which the current mate- 
rialistic theory cannot. — Tr, 

61 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

self of sleep is a spirit freed from ordinary material 
limitations, and this conclusion conforms to the 
hypothesis that we live in two worlds', the waking 
personality is adapted to the needs of terrestrial life, 
the personality of sleep maintains the fundamental 
connection between the spiritual world and the 
organism, so as to provide the latter with energy 
while developing itself by the exercise of its spiritual 
powers." 

This view finds additional confirmation in hypno- 
tism, which is an experimental development of sleep, 
having for its object an increase of the subliminal 
vitalization of the organism. In spite of innumerable 
modern works we are still ignorant of how and why 
hypnotic procedures produce their effects; we are 
only enabled to say that they are all produced by 
suggestion, which Myers defined as a "successful ap- 
peal to the subliminal self." But this subliminal ac- 
tivity itself remains as a whole capricious and unin- 
telligible. We are reduced to state its empirical 
effects, and here Myers shows that suggestion is the 
central curative factor in all old and new methods 
of cure, religious or otherwise; and, further, that the 
curative power invariably resides in the individual, 
and is not imparted from without. ''Beneath the 
threshold of waking consciousness," as Myers said in 
another place {Proceedings, S. P. R., Vol. XIV, p. 
107), "there lies, not merely an unconscious complex 
of organic processes, but an intelligent vital control. 
To incorporate that profound control with our waking 

62 



SUBLIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY 

will is the great evolutionary end which hypnotism, 
by its group of empirical artifices, is beginning to 
help us to attain." 

'* It is not true," cried Myers, a propos of the miracles 
of Lourdes, "that a bottle of water from a spring 
near which a girl saw a hallucinatory figure of the 
Virgin will, by miraculous virtue, heal a Turk in Con- 
stantinople; but it is true that on some influx from 
the unseen world — an influence dimly adumbrated in 
that Virgin figure and that sanctified spring — depends 
the life and energy of this world of every day." And 
the true explanation of this vitalization is found, 
according to Myers, only in this hypothesis of a world 
of spiritual life or cosmic energy (they are both one 
to him) by which our existences are fed. The efficacy, 
either therapeutic or ethical, of auto-suggestion de- 
pends upon the employment of some artifice by 
means of which the subliminal attention, being 
directed to a corporeal function or to a moral 
end, reaches a sufficiently elevated degree to im- 
bibe a new fund of energy from the metethereal 
world. 

These first four chapters, while they reinterpret many 
facts from that author's particular point of view, do 
not touch upon the great question of human survival, 
which was, nevertheless, the author's main interest. 
It is in the four following chapters that such proof 
is adduced ; and here Myers has erected a magnificent 
edifice of facts, with detail and ramification so great 
that it would be impossible for me to do more than 

63 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

refer to the three most essential points in this place. 
These three points are: 

First, the establishment of telepathy between the 
living by means of experiment and the observation 
of veridical hallucinations. The late researches of 
Gurney, Myers, and Podmore (in Phantasms of the 
Living) , then the striking results of the great ' ' Census 
of Hallucinations" in 1894, as well as a vast number 
of isolated cases; finally, the varied cases of trans- 
mission of thought, mental suggestion at a distance, 
etc., proved to Myers the reality of telepathy. Fur- 
ther, Myers was convinced that this telepathy was 
not a species of physical vibration of any sort, known 
or unknown. The facts proved, he believed, that the 
soul can function on occasion separately from its 
body; that certain segments, for example, of the 
agent's subliminal consciousness, dissociated from the 
rest yet attached to the organism, can impress at a 
distance the nervous centers of the percipient, or his 
soul, even {psychical invasion), and enter into im- 
mediate rapport at other times with the material 
world, thereby either obtaining direct knowledge (as 
in the case of ''second sight," traveling clairvoyance, 
etc.), or to act upon it, and there determine a local 
psychical center (phantasmo genetic center) which would 
be able, in its turn, to influence the persons present 
within a certain radius, and thus give a case of "col- 
lective hallucination." These conceptions appear 
far-fetched, it is true, when thus given in a few 
words and without their context, but they ap- 

64 



SUBLIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY 

pear almost natural as elaborated by the pen of 
Myers. 

We are thus naturally led to the second step in the 
argument. Once admit, says Myers, that personality 
may be liberated from its material organism, in order 
to invade the soul or the nervous centers of another, 
and there is nothing opposed to the view that this 
personality may persist after the death of the body, 
and in turn influence those still in the body. Telep- 
athy — proved in the living — is probably the means 
of communication between the living and the dead. 
Facts — since collected — have converted this possi- 
bility into a certainty. Already certain veridical 
hallucinations had suggested to him the idea that 
they had originated in a dead, rather than a living, 
operator. . . . Finally, the most definite and con- 
clusive proofs of this intervention of the discarnate 
are forthcoming in the case of Mrs. Piper and others 
where we apparently see the usurpation of a living 
organism by a deceased person. 

The independence of the soul and the body being 
thus established by the phenomena of telepathy, and 
its survival by those of possession, one rises quite 
naturally to the summit of the edifice — to the scien- 
tifico-philosophico-religious synthesis which consists 
in raising telepathy, or direct intercommunication of 
souls, to the dignity of universal law, of a supreme 
cosmic truth, reuniting all beings, incarnate and dis- 
carnate, living in this world or in others, in a splendid 
universe of moral and spiritual life. Seen from this 

65 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

height, the painful isolation of human personality, 
which seems to us irremediably separated by the im- 
passable barrier of the body in this planetary ex- 
istence, is only an appearance — a relative truth of an 
inferior order. Reality to them is immediate and 
complete communion, which is already realized un- 
knowingly here below in the profounder strata of our 
subliminal consciousness. The Church had a pre- 
sentiment of this truth in its dogma of the ''com- 
munion of saints " ; but it was incumbent upon modern 
science to establish it upon the solid base of experi- 
mental method, and rigorously to demonstrate these 
great ideas which were the patrimony of all religions 
and which signify the most profound aspirations of 
humanity — duty, prayer, and life eternal. ... 

CONCLUSION 

I epitomize and I conclude. It is well to distinguish 
between subliminal psychology, as such, and the 
philosophico-religious system which Myers tried to 
outline. 

We cannot foretell, at the present time, what the 
future has reserved for the spiritistic doctrine of 
Myers. If future discoveries confirm his thesis of the 
intervention of the discarnate, in the web and the 
woof of our mental and physical worlds, then his name 
will be inscribed in the golden book of the initiated, 
and, joined to those of Copernicus and Darwin, he will 
complete the triad of geniuses who have the most pro- 
foundly revolutionized scientific thought, in the order, 

66 



SUBLIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY 

Cosmological, Biological, Psychological. If, on the 
contrary, the veil which he tried to raise again falls; 
if the brilliant perspective of experimental meta- 
psychics, carrying into the beyond the objective and 
impersonal proceedings of science, should find it- 
self only a deceiving mirage — an optical illusion — in 
which he mistook for revelations from beyond the 
tomb what was, in reality, only the fiendish by-play 
of the subliminal self; if, in a word, it is necessary to 
renounce, not survival (which is another matter) , but 
the scientific demonstration of survival, then this 
would be the annihilation of all his aims and his 
efforts. 

But let us not forget that even in this case his truly 
scientific work, so far from being ruined, would persist 
intact, for it was only by following this idea of his that 
the ultimate truth was brought to light. It appears 
to me, indeed, that if ever we succeed in dissipating 
the illusions and discovering the truth in these mys- 
terious realms of occult phenomena, it will be only by 
following the path shown us by Myers, and in pur- 
suing this investigation as suggested by him ; and we 
may rest assured that, no matter what its ultimate 
outcome, his name will always be honorably attached 
to it as the founder of "subliminal psychology.*' 

6 



Ill 

** DECEIVING SPIRITS" 

THE object of this chapter is the analysis of some 
of the mediumistic communications which I have 
gathered in the course of my inquiry in order to show 
that they are a pure product of the subconscious 
imagination of the medium working upon memories 
and under the influence of latent ideas of various 
kinds. (I do not pretend to say that this general- 
ization can be universally applied; I only say that 
those cases which came under my own personal ob- 
servation, and which spiritists attributed to "deceiv- 
ing spirits," were only the work of the subconscious- 
ness of the medium.) 

My non-spiritistic readers, or those trained in 
psychology, will say, without doubt, that there is 
nothing new here, and again reproach me for pushing 
open doors already open. They hardly realize how 
little certain truths, to them self-evident, are known 
to the public — from which the majority of spiritists 
come. They invariably contend that there is always 
a wide gulf between the mere possibility of such a 
hypothesis and its proof. It is easy to claim that such 
messages have a purely endogenous source, including 

68 



^'DECEIVING SPIRITS'' 

nothing which proceeds from without; but to estab- 
Hsh it with evidence is another thing. Indeed, the 
great mass of messages remain inexpHcable; and it 
is only by taking the unwarranted stand that such 
messages cannot possibly have a source outside the 
medium that we are enabled to affirm, a priori, that 
all such messages originate within the medium, and 
must of necessity do so. But this dogmatic fashion 
of procedure has its inconveniences, and it would be 
more in conformity with a sane inductive method to 
demonstrate, by means of concrete examples taken 
from life, the thesis in question — viz., that the sub- 
conscious **ego" of the medium is capable of forging 
even those parts of the mediumistic productions which 
present the greatest appearance of coming from the 
spirit world, and that it does not do it by accident. 
It does not suffice for this demonstration to call it 
hypnosis or hysteria, or to explain the so-called mes- 
sages from the discarnate by the power of personifica- 
tion (" object ificat ion of types," of Richet), or the 
tendency to dissociation, of which these special states 
offer us striking examples. For the physicians and 
the psychologists this reconciliation is, without doubt, 
convincing ; they find scarcely any difficulty in corre- 
lating the mediumistic messages with the automatisms 
of a hysterical or hypnotized subject. But it is quite 
otherwise with the majority. . . . Induction and 
analogy do not enable us to classify under one head 
these morbid phenomena with the mysterious powers 
employed by certain individuals who appear other- 

69 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

wise to enjoy the best of health. Right or wrong, the 
great public, which supplies the spiritists and occultists 
of our epoch, refuses to see anything of hysteria or of 
auto-hypnotization in the exploits of mediums ; there 
are not wanting men of science, especially in Anglo- 
Saxon countries, who share this repugnance, and are 
more inclined to consider the major neuroses par- 
ticular cases of degeneracy — pathological counterfeits 
of the mediumistic genius — rather than the reverse. 
That is why it is better to study mediumship directly, 
analyzing its special conditions and apparent phe- 
nomena, without introducing into it points of view 
derived from other chapters of psycho-pathology. 
There will always be time enough later on for com- 
parisons and the weaving of theories. 

The two great obstacles which we encounter when 
we wish to demonstrate the purely psychological 
genesis of a mediumistic communication are: first, 
the ignorance in which one generally finds one's self 
with regard to the contents of the consciousness and 
subconsciousness of the subject at the moment of the 
delivery of the message; and, secondly, the difficulty 
of eliminating the participation of occult causes — al- 
ways possible by hypothesis. It necessitates, in fact, 
in order to be complete, our showing, first, that the 
contents of the message have been derived from the 
medium, and that they have not come from else- 
where. 

Now, the first point supposes a knowledge of the 
individuality of the medium, and of the minute de- 

70 



"DECEIVING SPIRITS" 

tails of his psychic life, which we are far from possess- 
ing in the majority of cases; we must have a com- 
bination of fortunate chances in order that the in- 
formation as to his past, his character, his stock of 
preoccupations, etc., as to his whole being, in fact, 
may supply us with the necessary elements to give 
us a satisfactory explanation of the messages which 
he has given us. 

As for the second point, it is impossible to be satis- 
fied directly and completely, since it is impossible to 
prove a negative. However, if we can prove that the 
message actually came from the medium himself there 
is no longer any necessity of appealing to the ''spirit 
world " for our explanation of this fact. To attribute, 
i.e., to a deceiving spirit — as the spiritists often do — 
lying communications which could be explained by the 
disposition of the subject is to sin against the method- 
ological principle, which does not allow us to multiply 
causes without necessity. However little we may 
find in a medium to account for a message, we must 
assume that it comes from him, and not postulate an 
outside intelligence operating through him. . . . And 
if spiritists insist that they may appeal to deceiving 
spirits in spite of all this, they abandon the scientific 
platform to which they so constantly appeal, in proof 
of their evidence. . . . Naturally, conditions such as 
those required to prove the case are seldom realized. 
The value of the following cases, therefore, lies in the 
fact that this, their true genesis, has been practically 
traced and shown to be due to normal psychological 

71 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

processes. With this I pass to an account of the cases 
themselves. 

I. THE CASE OF MME. DUPOND 

This case, so clearly one of lying communications, 
announcing the death of some one who was afterward 
proved to be still alive, has been succinctly described 
by Mme. Dupond in her reply to my inquiry. I pub- 
lish it at length, as I published it some ten years ago 
in the Philosophical Review, but with added details on 
account of its interest. 

Mme. Dupond, of Geneva, aged sixty-three. Learned 
and highly educated; literary tastes; philosophical 
and religious interests. Of good health; no phe- 
nomena outside the spiritistic crisis of which we 
speak. There are in her family some signs of hered- 
itary mediumship ; one of her brothers and her father 
have had prophetic dreams, and her son has cultivated 
automatic writing with success. 

In 1881, at the age of forty-five, she became in- 
terested in spiritism. She read Allen Kardec, Gibier, 
etc., and for one month took part in the seances of 
table-tipping, without much result. She then tried 
automatic writing, and, at the end of eight days 
(April 21), obtained the names of departed friends 
and her parents, with philosophico-religious messages, 
which continued for some days. On the 24th of April, 
as she had already written various communications, 
her pencil suddenly traced the name, quite unex- 

72 



^'DECEIVING SPIRITS" 

pectedly, of a M. Rudolph ... a young Frenchman 
of her acquaintance recently entered into a religious 
order of Italy. As she had not heard that he had 
died, she was profoundly surprised, but her hand 
continued to write a confirmation of the sad news, 
as follows : 

"I am Rudolph; I died at ii o'clock this evening 
(April 23). You must believe what I tell you. I 
am happy. I have finished my work. I have been 
sick for some days, and I could not write. I had a 
hemorrhage of the lungs, caused by a cold, which 
came suddenly. I died without suffering, and I have 
thought much of you. I have left orders as to your 

letters. I died at X , far from Dom Bruno. . . . 

Your father brought me to you; I did not know we 
could communicate thus. I am very happy. ... A 
little before my death I called to me the professor of 
Oratory; I gave him your letters, begging him to re- 
turn them to you; he will do so. After communion 
I said good-by to my colleagues. I was peaceful; I 
did not suffer; but life gradually became extinct. 
The passage of death resembled that of sleep. I 
awakened near God, near parents and friends; it was 
beautiful, wonderful; I was happy and free. I have 
thought all the time of those who loved me, and I 
should have liked to speak to them, but I could not 
communicate with them. I remain with you, and I 
see you, but I only notice your spirit. ... I am at- 
tached to you. Do not fear that I love you les3 

73 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

because I am no longer on earth. I am in space. I 
see your parents, and I love them also. Adieu ; I go to 
pray for you . I am no longer Catholic ; I am Christian . ' ' 

After the first astonishment Mme. Dupond could 
not help believing in it, and seeing in this a decisive 
proof of spiritism, especially when, the following day, 
she continued to receive communications from Ru- 
dolph, making numerous allusions to their past friend- 
ship, etc. These mediumistic conversations lasted 
daily for almost a week, but on the 30th of April the 
arrival, by post, of a letter from Rudolph — ^who, far 
from being dead, was in perfect health — threw cold 
water on her newly formed spiritistic convictions and 
discouraged her from following these experiments, 
which were so disconcerting. Since then, though 
continuing to interest herself in spiritism, she threw 
aside all practical mediumship, and never again tried 
to write automatically. 

Mme. Dupond believed that this period of spiritual 
communication with the pretended Rudolph lasted 
at least a month, although the documents only show 
that it lasted six days (April 24-30). . . . This period 
proved the most remarkable in her life; the thought 
of the said Rudolph and his invisible presence, the 
singular impression of being continually seen by him 
in all that she did, had become a veritable ' * obsession " 
(to use her own words) , to the point that she was sur- 
prised to find herself constantly tracing the letter 
''R" in the air with her index finger. 

74 



''DECEIVING SPIRITS" 

The spiritistic phase of Mme. Dupond constitutes 
on the whole only a passing distraction of short dura- 
tion in the midst of an existence otherwise perfectly 
normal. It is an example of episodic mediumship, 
which is continued in permanent mediumship. If 
this unexpected enchantment had not been cut short, 
or if the contents of the message had remained un- 
contradicted, this case would be truly typical and 
would serve to represent many others. But its prin- 
cipal interest lies in the fact that the pretended com- 
munications of Rudolph are explained, so to say, in 
the greatest detail, by reason of the information which 
Mme. Dupond, intelligent and observing woman as 
she is, has furnished me. 

It was during a visit to the Midi the preceding spring 
that she made the acquaintance of Rudolph, who was 
not yet a priest. He returned to Italy, where he 
passed the winter for his delicate health, and he 
spent some days in the same hotel as she. Their con- 
versations at the table soon changed to a lasting and 
intimate friendship, founded upon great similarity of 
temperament. 

Although Mme. Dupond was a Protestant and a 
convinced republican, and he, on the other hand, was 
an ardent Catholic, they had the same ideal aspira- 
tions, the same interest in higher things. Their 
hereditary divergences only added to the attraction 
and piquancy of their conversation. Mme. Dupond 
felt herself little by little seized with almost maternal 
tenderness toward this young man of twenty years, 

75 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

whose education seemed to fit him for a brilliant world- 
ly career, but whom rare elevation of soul and mystic 
tendencies urged toward taking holy orders — by rea- 
son of the influence recently exercised upon him by 
an eminent Italian preacher, Padre Dom Bruno; and 
she undertook to convert him to her religious faith. 
He, on his side, touched by this friendship of a wom- 
an who might have been his mother, responded to it 
by giving her his entire confidence, but not without 
attempting, in his turn, to bring her to his convictions. 
When, at the end of some days, he had to leave, their 
conversations continued by means of correspondence, 
but their attempts at reciprocal proselytism remained 
inefiicacious on both sides. Some months later the 
influence of Dom Bruno completely prevailed over 
that of Mme. Dupond, and Rudolph became asso- 
ciated with a religious order in the environs of Turin, 
under the direction of this father. Mme. Dupond 
consoled herself by dreaming of the invisible church 
which would reunite all souls sincerely Christian — 
above barriers of dogma and minor differences of 
creed. This step of Rudolph's did not cause any 
immediate cessation of their correspondence, and it 
was he who owed a letter to his friend when the 
spiritual communication was received. 

These details are necessary to make the reader 
understand the place which Rudolph had taken in the 
sentimental and intellectual life of Mme. Dupond. 
. . . But it is evident that the solicitude which 
Mme. Dupond felt for her young friend was still 

76 



^'DECEIVING SPIRITS'* 

deep, and ready to awaken on the slightest occa- 
sion. 

I may, perhaps, represent the situation in which 
Mme. Dupond found herself as follows: For some 
weeks she had been entirely wrapped up in spiritism, 
and she had been anxious to obtain convincing proof 
from the other side. For three days she had been 
receiving messages from her departed parents; what 
would be more natural than to suppose that this 
success had awakened in her the desire and expecta- 
tion of seeing the number and variety of her in- 
visible correspondents increase ? On the other hand, 
exterior circumstances, a sudden fall in the tempera- 
ture (more noticeable because it immediately followed 
a warm spell of spring), might well have given her 
apprehensions for those of her acquaintances whose 
health might suffer from this dangerous return to 
winter. Now would not this apprehension be particu- 
larly keen for the young man whom she knew to be 
delicate in the chest, and from whom she had re- 
ceived no letter? Had some misfortune happened 
to him? 

It is clear that the idea of the possible death of 
Rudolph, with its concomitant circumstances and 
its consequences, might at least have influenced the 
thoughts of Mme. Dupond, especially in view of her 
feeling for him. . . . Would not any mother or spiritual 
adviser have become more or less agitated in view 
of the situation ? 

And amid the multitude of thoughts, reasonings, 

77 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

fears, and suppositions to which such a thought would 
give birth, would not one fall inevitably upon Ru 
dolph? Assuredly the date and the hour of his 
decease remain unexplained (like so many things in 
our dreams or the caprices of our thoughts), because 
we are unable to trace all the ramifications and un- 
ravel all the confused threads of our associations of 
ideas. . , , But, with the exception of these insig 
nificant details, all the contents of these communica- 
tions of Rudolph can be seen to follow, as a sort of 
logical necessity, from the idea which his friend had 
of him; or constitute, as it were, a natural response 
to the ideas which haunted her. His illness, due to 
the sudden cold, which explained his inability to 
write to Mme. Dupond; his adieus to earthly life, 
worthy of his sincere belief; the care which he took 
that the correspondence of his heretic friend (slightly 
compromising to her from the double point of view 
of the sentimental note and the useless controversies 
against the influence of Dom Bruno), his passage to 
and his awakening in the other world, described in 
a manner absolutely in conformity with the spiritistic 
conceptions which then reigned in the religious life of 
Mme. Dupond; the memory of his earthly relations to 
her, and his manner of judging them now, in full ac- 
cord with the sentiments which she had of him, right 
or wrong; everything, in a word, in this series of mes- 
sages reflects the attitude (conscious or not) of Mme. 
Dupond, and corresponds exactly to what would 
naturally take place within her. She alone, there- 

78 



''DECEIVING SPIRITS" 

fore, and by no means Rudolph (even supposing that 
he had been dead at the moment) , was the source of 
these communications. 

It is here that arises, it is true, the hypothesis of 
** lying spirits," that ingenious expedient which allows 
spiritism to explain such communications flatly con- 
tradicted by the facts. In this particular case Mme. 
Dupond thought for long (and she is still a little in- 
clined, I think) to believe that this was really some 
deceiving spirit from the other side who had played 
her this trick. In one sense, and taking ''the other 
side'* to include all that goes beyond clear conscious- 
ness, she was right, and was evidently the victim of 
a villainous deceit, for which she herself was not at 
all responsible. There is nothing against the idea 
that we might give the name "spirit" to an unknown 
psychic complex which unites into one whole a 
plurality of psychic ideas, states, and feelings below 
the threshold of consciousness. . . . The question is, 
whether this ''psychic self" is really external to the 
medium (as spiritists assert and as Mme. Dupond 
herself is at times inclined to believe), or whether it 
is not within herself and the personality which, mani- 
fested in these messages, was not a purely temporary 
function — a projection or momentary creation of her 
being — such as the creations of our dreams, with 
which we speak and hold conversations? 

There is no doubt as to the reply. If we admit that 
the author of the pseudo-messages of Rudolph may 
be another being than Mme. Dupond herself, we must 

79 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

grant that this spirit was marvelously familiar with 
all that Mme. Dupond thought at that moment — her 
conscience, her memories, sentiments, tendencies, etc., 
concerning Rudolph. "He" was able to choose, in 
order to compose his lying messages, precisely the 
ideas which best agreed with those she herself held as 
to her young friend — the impressions which she had 
preserved of him, the contents of the correspondence 
exchanged between them, etc. This clever forger, in 
other words, had extracted from Mme. Dupond, in 
order to disguise himself the better, all the complex 
and systematic ideas — the composite picture, in short 
— which she possessed of him. . . . He only reproduced, 
in fact, the image of the young priest as it floated 
before her mind. . . . But if this is so, how does this 
spirit differ from Mme. Dupond herself? What is 
the meaning of this independent individuality which 
is only an echo, a reflection, a fragment of another? 
And what good this duplication of the original? I 
it not puerile and absurd to invent, in order to explain 
a synthesis and a psychological co-ordination, an 
other real substantial principle of synthesis and co- 
ordination — another individual or spirit, in a word — ; 
which contains the identical grouping of elements 
of the same nature as the writer herself ? Without 
doubt, from the metaphysical point of view, in the 
last analysis the organic and psychic individual re- 
mains a mystery; we cannot understand absolutely 
why or how synthesis or analysis is effected; why 
dreams should be constructed as they are, or why 

80 



''DECEIVING SPIRITS" 

the subconscious mind plays the comedy of deceiving 
spirits in a medium. But even though the ultimate 
explanation of things escape us, that does not pre- 
vent us from accepting only those explanations which 
are least removed from the facts of science; and all 
that we can attribute to the personality of the medium 
should be attributed to him, and not thought to be- 
long to another being external to him. 

The real correspondence of Mme. Dupond and 
Rudolph, after having existed for some months, 
finally and suddenly ceased. It is clear that his 
entry into holy orders had deepened the gulf between 
them, which now became impassable, which would 
render useless and tiresome the continuation of their 
correspondence. It was without doubt the presenti- 
ment of this inevitable issue which inspired in the sub- 
conscious imagination of Mme. Dupond its deceiving 
messages, in which are reflected much less her fears 
and her solicitude for the health of her friend than 
a secret desire for his death. If this return of winter 
should carry him off, and he should leave this world, 
far from Dom Bruno, ** after having returned me my 
letters, this would be finally the terrestrial climax 
most to be desired for our actual relations, to which 
would succeed, by reason of spiritism, a purely spirit- 
ual relation much more intimate, where nothing could 
hinder Rudolph from being once more everything 
to me." 

Such is the schematic formula which appears to me 
to express the confused sentiments or the submerged 

8i 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

complex of emotional feelings and ideas, in which the 
personifying tendency, unfolding itself freely in the 
state of mediumistic passivity, has drawn the com- 
munications of the departed to respond to the inti- 
mate desires of Mme. Dupond. 

2. THE CASE OP M. TIL 

[Here follows, in the original, the case of M. Til, 
which has been given elsewhere, pp. 194-201 in this 
volume.] 

3. THE CASE OF M. BERTIN ■, 

The dictations obtained through the pencil, or by 
means of the table, at spiritistic seances are divided 
into three groups as to their scientific interest : First j 
the greater part do not present much ; they contain only 
simple scribbles or unfinished typtological spellings or 
communications; and they constitute only a loss of 
time and create a sense of boredom and weariness for 
the impartial observer, who finds nothing in them 
which he can believe, nothing to glean from their 
contents, which are, at times, incoherent or vague; 
at others they represent only vague ideas or facts of 
public notoriety. Second, other messages, on the con- 
trary, attesting (by their surprising and veridical 
revelations) the reality of supernormal powers (telep- 
athy, clairvoyance, intervention of spirits, etc.) will 
be an inestimable prize for the philosopher, to whom 
they will open the most secret mysteries of nature. 
Third, there are presented some communications 

82 



'^DECEIVING SPIRITS'' 

which have the air of being of no value, and whose 
absurdity and falsity cause the spiritists to attribute 
them to the intervention of deceiving and lying 
spirits; but an attentive examination of their con- 
tents and the circumstances of their production 
enables us to discover the operation of hidden proc- 
esses and laws of our nature which are of the utmost 
importance. 

The following case is a good example of the latter 
class. The incident in question occurred at a s6ance 
at which were present four persons — one a secretary, 
who did not touch the table. The three others were 
the mediums — non -professional — a lady thirty-four 

years of age, a spiritist without fanaticism ; Mile. C , 

theosophist, at whose house this seance took place, 
and third, a gentleman sixty years of age, whom I 
shall call M. Bert in, a literary man and a professor 
of rare and penetrating mind, skeptically interested 
in these curiosities of human nature. It was from 
him that I received the following recital upon my 
asking him for it : 

* ' We sat round the table, which almost immediately 
began to move with great energy, and we had almost 
at once communications from a dead lady, which were 
of no especial interest. We then rested for a few 
moments to chat, our hands still resting on the table. 
The medium told me, among other things, that I had 
a considerable amount of 'fluid,' very agreeable to 
her, while there were certain persons whose 'fluid' 
was unpleasant to her. I asked her in what manner 
7 83 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

this 'fluid' manifested itself to her. 'It is a sort of 
very Hght current of air,' she repHed to me. Then 
she said, suddenly, 'Some one is here again!' And, 
indeed, the table began to move about with great 
violence, and rapped out these words: 

"Bertin, Bertin, my friend!' 

"Who is there?' 

"Alexander.' 

"Alexander who? Tell me your family name.' 

■'As I sought in my memory for some one whose 
name was Alexander, the table rapped 'D,' which 
awoke in me the memory of Alexander Dufour, dead 
for some years. But the spelling continued with an 
*E,' and finished by saying Devinez! The ladies asked 
me if I did not know an Alexander. I replied that I 
knew two, still living, whom I had seen recently. 
For each of them the table replied by two energetic 
blows, which, in the telegraphic language of spirits, 
signified ' No.' At this moment the medium said to me : 

"'It must be some one very excited.' 

"This word excited me, and made me think in a 

moment of my cousin Alexander G , secluded for 

about twenty years in a lunatic asylum abroad. 

"'Is it my cousin?' I asked. 

"The table rapped one single blow, meaning 'Yes,' 
so violently that we thought the foot of the table 
was broken; then it flung itself against me, pressing 
me with such force that I was obliged to draw back 
the arm-chair in which I was seated. 

84 



^'DECEIVING SPIRITS" 

'But my cousin lives still 1' I said. 
"'No, nor 
"Is he dead?' 
"'Yes!' 

"'When did he die?' 
"He is dead!' 

' Is it months or years ?' 
"No reply; nothing further, and the medium said 
to us, 'There is no longer anyone here; I sense it.'" 

I ought to say that the nature of this dialogue, 
even though I do not believe in these communications, 
awoke in me a good deal of emotion, the reason 
being that this cousin was in a lunatic asylum, and 
was being paid for year after year by money which, 
if the patient died, would come to M. Bertin. Never- 
theless, subsequent investigation showed that the 
patient was still in good physical health; the table 
had lied. 

Some time before M. Bertin had dreamed that this 
cousin of his had died ; and the subconscious remem- 
brance of this dream had doubtless remained, ready 
to emerge in a dream or in the mediumistic com- 
munications of the table. Under the circumstances 
it would be a saint indeed who did not at times 
desire the death of the hopelessly insane patient, 
since his heritage would, at his death, pass to M. 
Bertin. We have in these essential elements the 
conditions par excellence for the formation of a dream, 
and we need but recall the formula of Freud in his 

85 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

book, so profound and ingenious, as to the possible 
interpretations of dreams:^ 

''All dreams are the fulfilment, more or less dis- 
guised, of a suppressed wish." What M. Bertin 
wished, in spite of himself, was naturally the death 
of his cousin for his own sake (nobody wishes gra- v 
tuitously the death of another) ; but there was also 
the inheritance, which was so slow in coming. This 
suppressed wish became symbolized in the idea of 
death, and found expression in the movements of 
the table. The dictation of the table is, therefore, 
nothing more than the manifestation of the sup- 
pressed wish, under the guise of a communication 
from the patient in question. 

1 may add that this typtological message agrees 
marvelously with the theory of Freud (that our dreams 
are always disguised realizations of suppressed wishes) , 
though I do not thereby conclude that this theory 
has the unlimited explanatory power which the 
famous Viennese psychopathologist has accorded it.^ 

* Freud, Die Traumdeutung, Leipzig, 1900. 

2 Dr. Morton Prince has shown, in a brilliant article in The 
Journal of Abnormal Psychology (October-November, 19 10, pp. 
139-195), that this theory of Freud is open to several weighty ob- 
jections, and that often the dream represents "the expression of 
the wow-fulfilment of a wish; some seem to be the fulfilment of a 
fear or an anxiety; some that of emotional aspirations; some that 
of the dreamer's dominating attitude of mind, etc." (p. 151). 
Thus, in one case, the dream seemed to represent "her idea of 
life in general, and of the moral precepts with which she en- 
deavored to inspire herself and which she has endeavored to live 
up to, in order to obtain happiness" (p. 160). Doctor Prince 
elsewhere (p. 186) showed that there is a true analogy between 

86 



DECEIVING SPIRITS'* 



4. THE CASE OF MME. ZORA 

The publication of the cases of M. Til and Mme. 
Dupond, in 1899, promptly brought upon me various 
protestations from convinced spiritists, who thought 
that my psychological interpretations of these cases 
were too complicated, and were not as complete as the 
classical explanation of deceiving spirits. One of 
these protestations, coming from one who had an- 
swered my inquiry — Mme. Zora — appeared to me 
particularly interesting, because its principal argu- 
ment consisted in furnishing me with a new example 
in favor of my theory — viz., a lying communication 
(proceeding from a so-called spirit yet living), the 
genesis of which might easily be constructed in the 
imagination of the medium. Here is the case: 

"It is always a surprise," wrote Mme. Zora, *'to 
see how varied opinions may differ upon one docu- 
ment. Another thing astonishes me still more; it is 
that one takes so much pains to seek every means 
possible of avoiding the belief of relations with the 
other world, which appears to me so natural, so 
simple, and so logical. Permit me to send you two 
examples. Certainly, these two cases, chosen ad hocy 

dreams and various other forms of hallucinatory symbolism, and 
that in many cases there is no good evidence of the existence of 
a "psychic censor," etc., upon which Freud places so much stress. 
This article, and the subsequent correspondence between Doctor 
Prince and Doctor Jones in The Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 
should be read by all those interested in this question of the 
interpretation of dreams. — Tr. 

87 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

are well worthy of your criticism. In the case of M. 
Til, he was followed by a thought which haunted 
him; for when one is followed by an idea so tormenting 
as the possible culpability of one's child the anguish 
exaggerates the imagination to unheard-of propor- 
tions, so much so that this uneasiness may take the 
form of a voice, and become personalized; this is a 
fact well known among mothers. As for the case of 
Mme. Dupont, your reasoning is much less convincing ; 
the hypothesis of deceiving spirits is much better in 
that case. I should like to send you a personal 
proof of this hypothesis.*' 

[Briefly, the case is this: Eleven years before, Mme. 
Zora had known an old lady, then eighty years of age, 
whom she had seen much of at that time. She had 
not, however, thought about her for years. Her own 
hand announced the death of this lady, reminded her 
of their previous conversations, etc. ; but subsequent 
investigation proved that this old lady had not died 
until two months after the message had been received. 
Also, associated with this, was a message received 
through another medium, which stated that her hus- 
band, who had gone to live in the tropics, and from 
whom she had not heard for a year, had died of 
yellow fever. This proved true. Professor Flournoy 
considers, however, that this apprehension might have 
been telepathically handed on by Mme. Zora to the 
medium. It remains to be explained why the old 
lady, whom Mme. Zora had not thought of for years, 
should appear in her automatic script when she was yet 

88 



'^DECEIVING SPIRITS" 

alive. The news of her husband's death naturally- 
filled Mme. Zora's mind with sad thoughts; she 
thought of their early married life; of their be- 
trothal when they had lived in the small town in 
which also resided this old lady. Hence the natural 
subconscious association of ideas. — Tr.] 

5. THE CASE OF MME. LEBLANC 

A lady, Mme. Leblanc, in whom Mme. Zora was 
very interested, and whom she had tried to convert 
to spiritism, without succeeding, became seriously ill. 
Her end was hourly expected. One morning, when 
Mme. Zora could think of nothing else than her sad 
condition, and sat neglecting all her domestic occupa- 
tions, she seemed to sense her presence, as if she were 
there already **in the spirit," and she was suddenly 
seized with a desire to write. It was a sort of 
indescribable inward feeling or sensation in the right 
side of the body. She took a pencil which immedi- 
ately began to write the following lines, signed by the 
deceased : 

''What you thought was true. You were right. 
You spoke truly. I did not dare to believe it, and 
behold, I am here ! Glory be to our Father, whom you 
love and whom you glorify in your soul. „ . . Yes, I 
I am here, happy to be so, to tell you that in spite of 
my great desire to believe it, I had to experience it 
myself — to touch with the finger, to put my hand in 
the side. I have not forgotten our first meeting, and 

89 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

I have come to say 'Amen' with you to all the desires 
of your heart, to all your experiments. . . . A. L." 

If Mme. Leblanc had been dead at that moment it 
could never be categorically established that this 
message had not come from her; but as it was 
ascertained that she lived forty-eight hours longer 
in full consciousness there are only two alternatives 
for the spiritists — either that she momentarily freed 
herself from her body two days before the final end, 
and profited by this anticipated escapade into the 
beyond to come and speak to her friend, or that there 
was here a deceiving spirit who wished to amuse him- 
self by pretending to be the discarnate. Both of 
these hypotheses have found defenders among the 
friends of Mme. Zora; but, while admitting their 
legitimacy in general, she did not commit herself to 
either. She preferred to remain without any explana- 
tion rather than accept my odious psychological 
theory, according to which she herself would be the 
unconscious author of this little romance, and in 
which her imagination represented, in conformity 
with her beliefs, the joyous surprise of her friend 
arriving in the other world after so many doubts. 

6. OTHER CASES 

Examples such as these, in which the genesis of 
the communication has been so clearly established, 
are rare. The greater number of such messages can- 
not be proved in this manner, either because the sup- 
posed author is really dead, which prevents this veri- 

90 



I 



"DECEIVING SPIRITS" 

fication, or because the mediums cannot remember 
the incidents which would explain in a natural manner 
the contents of the communications. Upon these 
equivocal cases the judgments of the psychologist and 
of the convinced spiritist are, as may well be imag- 
ined, diametrically opposed. Our documents furnish 
us innumerable examples of such cases. 

1. Deceiving Messages of Obscure Origin. — Spiritists 
naturally attribute to bad or frivolous spirits the lying 
communications of which they are the victims, not 
being able to admit that they may be the product 
of their own natures, since they have not the feeling of 
being their author. The psychologist, on the con- 
trary, has but little hesitation on this point, knowing 
how the penumbra of our consciousness is always 
bristling with small interests or emotional ideas, 
hardly noticed — fears, desires, regrets, wishes, suspi- 
cions, remorse, scruples, memories, and psychic ele- 
ments of all kinds, 'which the e very-day affairs of life 
suppress, but which are ready to surge upward and 
become organized in obsessions, more or less per- 
sonalized, however little the individual believes it to 
be so or knows of it. The lying communications, ap- 
parently inexplicable, of which so many novices com- 
plain (and which finish often in disgusting them with 
mediumship) have probably no other source. 

2. Imaginary Reconstruction of the Dead. — ^The 
mediumistic creations with which we are here con- 
cerned are again not deceiving in the eyes of the 
spiritists, when they recognize in them the clearly 

91 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

authentic presence of their discarnate relatives and 
friends; but they remain fatally so in the eyes of 
the psychologist, for whom the pretended ' ' spirits " are 
only (until proved to the contrary) imitations, some- 
times very successful, of people whom the medium 
had known while living. 

This reconstruction of the dead is only an extension 
of our habit of forming concrete notions of the per- 
sonality of others, a tendency springing from the 
necessity of social adaptation, and which can be 
applied just as well to the absent as to the present. 
If we had not this innate faculty, which is developed 
by experience, of representing to ourselves the psychic 
character of our fellow-creatures and of foreseeing 
their reactions, we would never be able to hold any 
social intercourse with them. The eclipses or imper- 
fections of this faculty constitute what is called "want 
of tact,'* the art of doing "foolish things," etc. We 
might say that we possess within ourselves a com- 
plete gallery of portraits, more or less exact, of all 
those whom we have known directly (parents, friends, 
etc.), or by hearsay (historical and literary persons, 
etc.), or in imagination (creations of our imagination, 
ideals, heroes of personal romances, etc.) . But these 
portraits are not set and inert. These personalities 
live in us ; we cause them to act and develop in accord- 
ance with their own particular characters, in the situa- 
tions, real or fictitious, in which v e have placed them 
in our imagination. If such-and-such a person 
is "there" — my friend John, who is traveling, or my 

92 



{ ( 



DECEIVING SPIRITS" 



father, who is dead, or Mr. Pickwick, etc. — I repre- 
sent to myself what he experiences, what he would 
think, would say, would do, etc., under certain con- 
ditions and circumstances. It is clear that this pas- 
sion for reconstructing the absent is carried beyond the 
door of the other world, and the cases of Mme. Zora 
and Mme. Dupond have shown us with what ease the 
thoughts of the spiritists can invent and pursue even 
into the beyond the history of those whom they believe 
to have "passed over."^ 

These mediumistic representations or imitations 
exercise upon candid and open natures, which are at 
the same time the cause and the victims, a seduction 
much greater than in other individuals. . . . More 
convincing still to them are the cases in which the 
deceased retain their judgment, and express ideas, 
sentiments, wishes, etc., directly contrary to those of 
the medium. How can we suppose that this is not a 
real spirit? 

[Here follow two cases in which this opposition is 
manifested by the intelligence doing the automatic 



* This explanation would only hold good, of course, in those 
cases in which the medium had known the. deceased, or heard of 
him, or possessed some knowledge of him and his life. In the 
Piper case, many hundreds of personalities have communicated 
of whose existence the medium knew nothing, and related many 
facts about their own lives, the life of the sitter, etc., which could 
not have been obtained by any normal process, by any normal 
channel of information. Professor Flournoy elsewhere admits 
this, however (p. 183), and it is only necessary to point this out 
here, because of the possible misunderstanding which might 
otherwise have arisen.— Tr. 

93 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

writing to the ideas of the medium. In the first case 
a father orders his sister-in-law, who has charge of his 
little girl, to follow a line of action contrary to her 
express desires. This case Professor Flournoy ac- 
counts for by the supposition that the medium's sub- 
consciousness expresses the views which she supposed 
the father would take were he still alive. In the 
second case, directions were given by the father of 
Lucien, the brother of the before-mentioned girl, 
which were contrary to those of the medium, but 
which he insisted upon and were so like himself in their 
characteristic features that his advice was taken. 
The explanation offered by Professor Flournoy in this 
case is similar to that of the last — the motives of the 
deceased were postulated by the subconscious imagi- 
nation of the subject and externalized in the form of 
automatic writing, etc.] 

CONCLUSION 

The observations contained in this chapter have 
thrown a considerable light upon the capital role 
which the two following factors play in the genesis of 
deceiving messages: Firsts the existence of latent 
emotional complexes in the marginal regions of con- 
sciousness, and, second, their capacity for representing 
foreign personalities. Although very different in na- 
ture, these two factors compliment each other in a 
marvelous manner, and constitute the principal ele- 
ments in the reconstruction of the deceased. This is 
quite obvious in the case of Mme. Dupond. It is clear 

94 



"DECEIVING SPIRITS*' 

that for the general activities of our nature to give birth 
to such special phenomena as are called spiritistic com- 
munications it is necessary to have a particular con- 
dition — viz., a certain state of passivity, of mental 
inertia, of abdication of self, in the expectation of 
strange interventions — which constitutes the state of 
mediumship. It is a state of obscure regression or of 
partial auto-hypnosis (capable of being developed into 
a total trance) , whose dominant trait is the loss of all 
feeling of initiative or of psychic causality, so that 
the play of the imagination, which is unfolded in the 
sanctum sanctorum of our personality, and of which 
one has the consciousness of being more or less the 
author, appears to the medium to have a reality and 
an origin independent of himself. 



IV 

" BENEFICENT SPIRITS " 

AFTER deceiving spirits, beneficent spirits! If 
i\ I separate them from the former it is not be- 
cause the name is any more accurate in the latter case, 
but they do not lie as to their real function ; they help, 
they encourage, they free from difficulties, they pro- 
tect, often even, they save life. For the rest, when 
by chance they miscarry or commit an error, they are 
relegated to the class of deceiving spirits, so that the 
honor of their group is always safe. In tradition 
and the popular language of the spiritists they carry 
all sorts of names — spirit protectors, angel guardians, 
good geniuses, familiar demons, spiritual guides, etc. 
In our scientific jargon, barbarous and pedantic, we 
call them teleological automatisms; or, more exactly, 
they represent events psychologically superior to 
teleological automatisms, since they form, often, a 
secondary personality, more or less complete, which 
includes everything from happy inspirations to 
simple reflexes. 

There is, indeed, when one considers it, a scale of 
' ' unconscious finality " which constitutes the mystery, 

96 



^'BENEFICENT SPIRITS'' 

par excellence, of life, and the greatest problem of 
philosophical biology. Between the contraction of 
the pupil, under the stimulus of light, or the pro- 
jection of the arm following the stumbling by the 
foot, and the apparitions to Joan of Arc of the saints 
which dictated to her the extraordinary messages of 
instruction, or her wonderful responses to the theo- 
logians who had decided to ruin her, we find all the 
intermediate stages. The rubrics which follow only 
respond to some categories of cases and are far from 
exhausting the subject. Although proceeding, for the 
most part, from non-mediumistic persons, the follow- 
ing observations illustrate psychological processes 
which are common in mediums, and which would 
infallibly have given place to a spiritistic interpreta- 
tion with subjects or in circles given to spiritism. 

I. ANTI-SUICIDAL HALLUCINATIONS 

On the day following a lecture on "Subconscious 
Phenomena" I received from one of my hearers a 
letter inclosing, among other incidents, the following 
case: 

"Some years ago, in passing through a period of 
great trial, I no longer wished to live. ... I had pre- 
pared to end my life, and it was only a matter of time 
when, stretched on a couch, I heard perfectly the 
cries of my son, with whom his grandmother was 
playing upon the veranda of our chalet, situated about 
nine miles from the place where I then was. When 

97 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

I was informed of the hour, the coincidence was 
exact. From that moment I have interested myself 
most keenly in this life. . . . The intimate nature of 
the facts which I relate to you prevents my signing it." 

It is regrettable that my correspondent by reason of 
timidity or exaggerated modesty, which is one of the 
great obstacles in psychic research, has prevented her 
signing this document, because it deprives the case 
of all evidential value. But, supposing it to be true, 
this case is a pretty example of anti-suicidal autom- 
atism. According to Myers's theory, the sub- 
liminal self endowed with telepathic faculties, or at 
least extraordinary auditory hyperaesthesia, would 
have transmitted to the consciousness of this desperate 
mother the distant laughter of her son in order to 
awaken in her thoughts which would again attach 
her to this life. In the current psychopathological 
conceptions, which ignore the subliminal and telepa- 
thy, the laughter of the child is only a memory — the 
coincidence being, on this theory, purely fortuitous 
— a memory which became externalized as a hallu- 
cination by reason of its association with the thoughts 
and memories of her son, — the hallucination resulting 
from the state of mental dissociation of the poor 
woman. The fact that this hallucination arose just 
at the right time to divert her from her deadly purpose 
might be regarded either as a happy chance or as a 
fact of subconscious finality — the obscure manifesta- 
tion of the will to live stifled and perverted. 

98 



^'BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

To sum up, the unexpected psychic phenomenon 
which saved the Hf e of this anonymous lady only did 
so indirectly by changing the course of her thoughts, 
and remains a case of simple auditory pseudo- 
perception. 

There are cases far more striking where the anti- 
suicidal automatism directly intervenes at the mo- 
ment of the execution of the act to prevent it, and is 
sometimes clothed in all the imaginary complexity 
of a strange apparition. Here are two examples, 
one historical, the other as yet unpublished: 

The Case of Benvenuto Cellini 

We are familiar with the episode of the captivity 
of Benvenuto Cellini, where, tired of his bad deeds, 
and having resolved to take his own life, the famous 
artist was marvelously preserved from doing so — 
first, by an invisible force which hindered him from 
accomplishing the fatal act, then by the apparition 
of an angel, whose exhortations awakened his 
courage and caused him to abandon his sinister 
project. 

The Pope held him imprisoned in the Castle of 
San Angelo. He lay there with a fractured leg, not 
yet healed, upon a rotting straw mattress, in a damp 
dungeon, almost entirely deprived of light. Having 
come to an end of his endurance, and being without 
any knife to kill himself, he succeeded in arranging 
a piece of wood, over which he had accidentally 
stumbled, so that it would strike his head from its 
8 99 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

unstable position when he desired it. But when all 
was ready, and he was about to lift his hand, he was 
seized by an invisible force, which threw him two 
yards away ! He remained there in a swoon for some 
hours. The keeper, having found him in this condi- 
tion, believed him dead and was about to fetch a 
priest. But at the sound of voices he came to him- 
self; help was furnished him, and he was given an- 
other mattress. In reflecting upon what had been 
able to stop him in his design, he saw an intervention 
of divine protection in his favor. 

The following night he saw in a dream the appari- 
tion of a wonderful young man, who reproved him in 
these terms: ''Knowest thou who it is who has in- 
trusted to thee this body, which thou hast wished to 
destroy before its allotted time?" He replied that 
he recognized that he was indebted to the God of 
naturco *'Is it thus, then," replied the beautiful 
youth, ''that thou despisest His work in wishing to 
destroy it ? Let thyself be led by Him, and do not 
cease to trust in His power." * 'The apparition added," 
said Benvenuto, "many other words, also admirable, 
of which I do not recall the thousandth part. I be- 
lieve that this figure of an angel had told me the 
truth." The captive then wrote on the leaves of his 
Bible a renouncement of his intention to commit 
suicide, and on doing so he recovered all his energy. 
He had also in his prison other visions in which ap- 
peared, vaguely, the same angelic face, austere and 
chaste. 

lOO 



**BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

In the language and in the Hght of present-day 
psychology, this adventure may be interpreted in the 
following manner: 

Already predisposed to subconscious phenomena 
by reason of the genial temperament of the artist, 
debilitated by the life of passion and tumult which 
he had led, still shaken by the sudden turn of fortune 
and a recent escape, in which he had broken his leg, 
finally and especially weakened by the length of his 
imprisonment, Cellini finished by undergoing in his 
dungeon a temporary psychological dissociation. 
While his conscious mind, depressed by the circum- 
stances and reduced to a narrower and narrower 
circle of gloomy thoughts, contemplated suicide, the 
innate instinct of physical and moral preservation 
was operative behind it all and, recombining the latent 
energies of this powerful individuality, allowed them 
to surge forth at the appropriate moment under a 
double form. On the one hand we find the motor 
automatism which seized him at the critical moment 
and displayed itself in a violent niuscular explosion, 
which made him, regardless of his fracture, jump out of 
the reach of danger. On the other hand it is sublimi- 
nal imagination which, under the impressive and per- 
suasive aspect of a heavenly messenger, placed before 
him all the religious and moral arguments which were 
capable of convincing him and changing his feelings. 
By reason of this a synthesis was re-established be- 
tween his degraded personality and the more exalted 
reasons for living, which had been momentarily dis- 

lOI 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

sociated, and Cellini became again his entire self and 
was cured of all desire for suicide. 

We cannot say exactly why it was in the mouth of 
a beautiful youth (rather than that of Christ or the 
Virgin, for example) that the dream phantasy placed 
the exhortations which influenced the poor, desperate 
man. It is clear that this symbolic image was at that 
moment the most accessible and the most appro- 
priate for its function of a herald of truth. Perhaps 
we may see there an echo of certain secret preferences 
of the artist, or a recollection of divine messengers or 
envoys, so frequent in the first chapters of the Bible, 
the reading of which Cellini had begun the preceding 
days. But whatever it may be, nothing authorizes 
us to believe that this young man was a permanent 
reality — a familiar spirit, angel guardian, spiritual 
guide, etc. In psychological terms, it was a secon- 
dary personality more or less stable and well systema- 
tized, for it does not seem that this apparition ever 
manifested to him on other occasions. At no other 
time in his life did he believe that he had a familiar 
spirit, or act as if he believed it. Assuredly we en- 
counter, scattered throughout his Memoirs, certain 
indications of automatism, or of exaggerated suggesti- 
bility (when — e.g., a necromancer made him see, one 
night, a number of devils) ; but these phenomena of 
the subconsciousness remain without coherence, and 
we could never class Cellini among the cases of 
double personality. 

The phenomena of automatism and hallucination 

I02 



''BENEFICENT SPIRITS'* 

which he presented in prison were, then, the result of a 
dissociation purely accidental and transitory, due to 
the peculiar circumstances in which he found himself. 
If he had retained full possession of his faculties it is 
probable that the brave and fiery Florentine would 
never have had the idea of suicide; but to suppose 
that this idea had come to him and temporarily car- 
ried him away is quite natural. It would result from 
a war of motives in the interior of his personality, 
which came to him clothed in this particular form. 

The Case of Baroness d'A 

The adventure of Cellini is not the only one of its 
kind which could be found in the annals of psycho- 
pathology. But it seemed to me sufficiently typical to 
serve as an introduction to a recent case, which dif- 
fers from it only in its extrinsic circumstances. I 
owe the knowledge of this case to one of my colleagues. 

Doctor T , who was the involuntary hero of it, 

and who unwittingly played in the existence of the 
unfortunate woman the role of the ' ' beautiful young 
man" of Cellini. It concerned a lady of his acquain- 
tance, who saw him rise before her (in hallucination) 
at the moment when she was about to throw herself 
into the water under the influence of her gloomy 
thoughts. Not only was she hindered by force at that 
moment, but, like Cellini, hearing the discourse of the 
angel, she definitely abandoned her intention of 
suicide by virtue of the admonitions of the imaginary 
doctor. 

103 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

The following account is based upon notes which 
Doctor T furnished me,^ upon the oral informa- 
tion obtained from Baroness d'A : 

[Briefly, the case is this: Baroness d'A , the 

heroine of this story, is a lady of literary and artistic 
tastes, having had some articles and verse published. 
Her husband, associated with public affairs, lived 
much in foreign countries. She lived always a very 
honorable but excitable life. She possessed a keen 
imagination; was very intelligent; suffered some- 
what in her health, and was melancholy at times. 
She was the mother of two children, aged ten and 
twelve years. One summer, at a summer resort in 
the mountains, she met Doctor T , and they be- 
came greatly drawn to each other. When she left 
their friendship continued by letter, and they dis- 
cussed philosophical and moral questions at great 
length. A little later Baroness d'A took a gyne- 
cological treatment, and at about that time read 
a book on sexual questions, from which she gained 
the erroneous idea that she had been infected with 
syphilis; thenceforward she dared not kiss her chil- 
dren, and she would not look any one in the face. 
She lost weight; she became ill and irritable; finally 
she determined to commit suicide. All this remained 
a close secret, however, as she dared tell no one. One 
evening she attended a ball. On the eve of her leav- 

^ He is Dr. Emile Thomas, privat-docent of the faculty of 
medicine of Geneva, who has allowed me to publish this case 
and sign his name. 

104 



''BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

ing the house she received a letter from Doctor T , 

which she placed in her corsage without reading. She 
attended the ball, dancing with more than accus- 
tomed vim. When she again reached home she went 
to the bridge over the river (having found the street 
empty) and looked into the water. Clear night; 
silvery moon ; profound silence. She peered into the 
water, selecting the place in which to throw herself. 

At that moment Doctor T emerged (so it seemed) 

from the water, and somehow reached the wharf on 
which she was then standing. He threw his arm 
around her waist and dragged her from the spot. He 
then hurried her home (his arm still about her), and 
continued to upbraid her severely for her attempt. 
They reached her home. He took the key from her 
hand and opened the door. They went up-stairs 
into her boudoir; she lighted the lamp; he still re- 
mained with her, his arm tightly clasped around her 
waist. He then released her. He reproached her 
severely, forcing her to her knees before him. He 
reproached her for attempting to take her life; she 
had no right to, he said, on account of her children. 
It was cowardly, therefore a crime. She replied, and 
a lengthy argument took place between the two. 
Finally she hid her head in the cushions of the sofa, 

but Doctor T shook her roughly and made her 

listen to him. Finally he left her. She lay shivering 
until the morning. All desire for suicide had left her. 
The next morning, however, she found a blue mark 
about her waist, where the doctor had placed his arm; 

105 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

this remained for several days. For two days she re- 
mained in a state of semi-swoon, thinking over the 
events of that night. During this period she remained 
in bed, and did not appear normal to outsiders. Her 
feelings toward the doctor had always been mixed — 
respect and fear being blended. Thus, he had un- 
consciously taken the place of a sort of spiritual ad- 
viser. After that night Baroness d'A became 

virtually normal.] 

Now let us consider this case, and its possible inter- 
pretation. It is certain that Baroness d'A was 

not in a state of ordinary somnambulism, since she 
remembered perfectly all the scenes and events 
through which she had passed — the water, the street ; 
all tactile sensations, also kinesthetic — the feeling of 
the doctor's arm, etc. Might it not be, on the con- 
trary, that (inasmuch as this scene took place with- 
out any witness) the Baroness simply dreamed the 
whole occurrence — having come home from the ball 
very late, thrown herself down on the couch, where 
she awoke the next morning?^ Despite the memory 

* This supposition has in its favor the fact that Baroness d'A 

still carried the letter in her bosom, for it is inconceivable that 
she would really commit suicide without having read it. She 
did not read it at the ball, nor on her staircase, nor in the 
street, nor in the light of the moon; it is therefore likely that, 
freed from her cousin (who escorted her home), she went to her 
own apartment to read it, from which she did not emerge, but 
in which she experienced in imagination the whole scene. As for 

the wharf, the pretty light on the water, etc., Baroness d'A 

would have mentally seen these in advance in making her plans. 
They formed the skeleton of her idea. 

io6 



''BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

and the conviction which she had of having gone 
from the house, of having seen the lake silvered by 
the moon, of leaning over the water, etc., this ought 
not to prevent us from applying, in her case, the gen- 
eral term somnambulism. Simple dream or somnam- 
bulistic enactment, it is of little importance to us. The 
essential fact remains, that this imaginary interven- 
tion of Doctor T had as its consequence the com- 
plete change of the state of mind of Baroness d' A , 

of radically curing her idea of suicide. We might 
compare her case with partial conversions or psychic 
revolutions, limited to a particular weakness or in- 
clination, accompanied by hallucinatory phenomena. 
As for the blue mark about her waist found the next 
day, if it was really related to this scene of the night 
it would represent an effect of auto-suggestion — 
analogous to the stigmata of the mystics, and to other 
vaso-motor phenomena sometimes seen as the result 
of certain dreams.^ 

As regards the signification or the intellectual con- 
tent of the hallucination, in opposition to the mental 
images and to the dramatic development of the scene, 
this signification is evidently that of a struggle be- 
tween the motives which urged Baroness d'A to 

suicide and those which militated against it. In her 
violent somnambulistic discussion with the doctor it 



^ See, in this connection, the article by Dr. George A. Water- 
man in The Journal of Abnormal Psychology (October-November, 
19 lo, pp. 196-210), where several very interesting cases are 
given. — Tr. 

107 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

was she who represented the first, and he who opposed 
to it victoriously the second. But it is manifest 
that these latter form a part of the total personality 
of the unfortunate mother : the love of her children, 
the duty of avoiding for her family the opprobrium 
of a suicide, the sentiment of cowardice of such 
an act, the religious scruples subsisting at the basis 
of her soul, etc.; there was nothing in the argument 

of the doctor, such as Baroness d'A recalled it, 

which surpassed the reasons which her own normal 
sense would certainly have furnished had she been 
able, in the course of the preceding day, to recover 
for one moment the full possession of herself. 

It is clear that many other considerations co-oper- 
ated in the revulsion of her mind. The fact that, after 
all, her illness was not so incurable nor so contagious 
as she believed; all the enjoyments which existence 
could still give her ; the physical fear of death . . . the 
idea of breaking off the correspondence with Doctor 

T might also have come to her mind — a theory 

which the adherents of the Freud school would surely 
point out immediately if the analysis of this case 
should pass into their hands! However much this 
may have been the case, it is not shown in the tirade 
of the doctor, which was conducted only along the 
highest moral and religious lines. 

The Choice of Symbolic Personification. — It may be 
asked, in this connection, how do we know that a 
real telepathic influence was not exercised on this 

occasion by Doctor T , since we know that telep- 

io8 



''BENEFICENT SPIRITS'* 

athy at a distance is a fact? Without denying its 
possibility, I would say that there seems to me no 
reason to invoke it in this particular case. Doctor 
T was quite ignorant of Baroness d'A 's sup- 
posed illness, and of her contemplated suicide ; and did 
not recall having even thought of her on the evening 
in question. On the other hand, we have the positive 
knowledge that he would be the one most likely to 
assume this role in her subconscious imagination — to 
play the part of mentor, since he had always appeared 
to her the essence of reason, wisdom, faith in an ideal, 
etc., and if she felt sometimes irritated and at the 
same time charmed by the religious views of the 
doctor — so opposed to hers — she could not refrain 
from inwardly rendering homage to them, knowing 
that he had much truth on his side. In short, his 
spiritual and moral superiority had gained a great 
hold over her — an influence, an authority, an ascen- 
dancy which she had never felt in another. « . . 

We remember the cases of hysterics who, haunted 
subconsciously by the recollection of their doctor, 
have suddenly a visual hallucination of him, or hear 
his voice, especially if they find themselves in some 
critical circumstance in which they justly have need 
of his presence in order to strengthen them and free 
them from bad influences.^ 

^ Let us recall, among others, the case of the hysteric whom 
Janet had cured, by suggestion, of her fear of cholera, and who, 
seized again by her fear because she had to pass the door of a 
hospital, was about to go round by another street when she sud- 
denly saw, as a hallucination, Janet barring the street and 

109 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

By this ingenious process their subconsciousness, 
which we should be tempted to call superconscious- 
ness, comes to the help of their personality, ordinarily 
too feeble to accomplish the action of itself. And 
there is no need in such people, as Janet has well 
remarked, for the doctor to have specially suggested 
the thought to them of behaving in such and such a 
manner under the circumstances in question: the 
general influence is sufficient — the heritage of former 
suggestions which exist in the subject and which his 
imagination adapts, by analogy, to new circumstances 
often very different. 

In the present case Doctor T had never given 

Baroness d'A suggestions or commands of any 

kind whatever; but we may believe that, by reason of 
his personal influence (which she felt, as we have seen 
from her letters) , all his relations with her were one 
vast suggestion, in the sense of moral support and 
hope, in the midst of the difficulties of life. . . . From 

all this it is obvious that Doctor T would naturally 

be the one who would be chosen by the subconscious 

imagination of Baroness d'A as the one who would 

hinder her from such an act. As for the details of the 
role, they were, as almost always occurs in a dream, 
a melange of memories and fantastic traits adapted to 
the temperament of the subject. ... As to the 

obliging her to pass the door of the dreaded hospital. (Janet, 
Nevroses et Idees Fixes, Paris, 1898, T. I., p. 449, etc. Compare 
C. B. Leroy, " Interpretations psychologiques des visions intellec- 
tuelles chez les mystiques," p. 43, Revue de VHistoire des Re- 
ligions^ January-February, 1907.) 

no 



''BENEFICENT SPIRITS'* 

method of grasping her by the waist, dragging her 
by force to her feet, or reprimanding her, etc., all this 
violence of action and of language is pure fiction, but 
a transparent fiction, which expresses in a striking 
manner the place which the personality of the doctor 
occupied in the psychic economy of the Baroness. . . . 

RESUME 

So far as we can draw any general conclusions from 
particular cases, we may say that the production of 
an anti-suicidal hallucination, well developed, with a 
subject otherwise normal, supposes a quadruple con- 
dition: I. A constitution somewhat neuropathic, very 
imaginative, and susceptible to transient dissociations, 
following physical influences or mental debility. 
2. A temperament sufficiently optimistic, or furnished 
with sufficient reasons for living, not to allow it- 
self to be brought to the very depths of despair by 
discouragement. 3. An ensemble of psychic circum- 
stances depressing enough to cause the motor expres- 
sion of morbid thoughts and the desire to end life. 
4. Moral isolation — the absence of all exterior con- 
fidants capable of reawakening the latent energies, 
and to whom the subject could tell his silent thoughts, 
they being healthfully discharged in this manner. 
The combination of so many conditions ought to be 
very rare. Also, we could scarcely hope that the 
phenomena of teleological automatism could ever 
counterbalance, to an appreciable degree, the grow- 
in 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

ing tendency toward suicide engendered by the 
miseries of our actual civilization. 

Varieties of Anti-suicidal Automatism 

The cases of Cellini, and especially that of Baroness 

d'A , are very complex examples of anti-suicidal 

automatism. It is not necessary that the phe- 
nomena should necessitate a richness of imagination, 
or should be pushed as far as division of personality, 
with a dramatic struggle between the desperate self 
on the one hand, and the motives for living, made 
concrete by a clear personification, on the other. It 
may happen that, as in the example of the anonymous 
lady, everything resolves itself to some simple fact of 
sensorial or motor automatism, which arrests the 
unfortunate person at the point of taking away his 
life, and which, by reason of his astonishment, brings 
him to reflection and a change of mind. We find it 
so in two good recent cases — patients of Doctor Jung. 
One was a paralytic general, who, wishing to throw 
himself out of a window, found himself thrown 
back into the room by the sudden appearance of a 
shining light before the window. The other was a 
psychopath, who tried to end his life by means of gas. 
After having inhaled a few deep inspirations he felt 
a heavy hand grasp him on the chest and throw him 
to the ground, where he by degrees recovered from his 
fright. In these two cases the automatism limited 
itself to an elementary hallucination, visual or tactile, 
which saved the individual and made him delay at a 

112 



''BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

critical moment, thus leaving him time to return to a 
saner condition of mind. 

Perhaps it might be convenient to descend further 
still and admit the presence of a like process, but in a 
rudimentary degree, in all those cases where one would 
not ordinarily suspect it — in many of those attempts 
at suicide rendered abortive by reason of some fortui- 
tous circumstance, as trembling of the hand, etc. In- 
deed, the very least instinctive or reflex phenomenon 
which protects the individual, in spite of himself, is 
already, at basis, a teleological automatism, the index 
of a finality which might be considered as an in- 
finitesimal doubling of consciousness, nascent or 
evanescent. Also, it is likely that we deceive our- 
selves often in attributing to pure chance unforeseen 
events which are really due to some wise vigilance 
hidden in the depths of the psycho-physiological 
organism. ... In cases of suicide prepared for in ad- 
vance, and which are prevented, nevertheless, because 
the cord was too long, the poison insufficient, the arm 
badly steadied, the water of insufficient depth, etc., 
should we not have a right to suspect some trick of the 
subconscious processes, some obscure arriere-pensees, 
in the marginal regions of consciousness which baffled 
the projects of the ordinary consciousness, making it 
unwittingly bungle its attempt? This would be the 
beginning of anti - suicidal automatism, which has 
nothing of the impossible about it. Indeed, the re- 
searches of Freud and his school have shown us that 
such a supposition is quite within the bounds of reason. 

113 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

If to these different degrees of psychological de- 
velopment we add the individual differences of mental 
imagery and the play to which the creative imagina- 
tion can abandon itself in the elaboration of symbolic 
personifications, we can see a great variety which 
anti-suicidal automatisms would present when more 
examples are gathered. 



2. VARIOUS PHENOMENA OF CRYPTOPSYCHISM * 

The intervention of teleological automatisms — alias 
"beneficent spirits" — is not limited to the extreme 

^ I have cited cryptcBsthesia and cryptomnesia because it is there 
that the perceptions and memories (which ordinarily serve as 
points of departure) furnish the materials for the elaboration of 
teleological automatisms. But it is clear that all our psychic 
functions — ^association, reasoning, imagination, etc. — can con- 
tribute to this secret elaboration and merit equally the prefix of 
"crypto." As it is not always easy to assign to each of these 
components in the process its exact place, the most convenient 
method is to apply to all of them the general term cryptopsychism 
(cryptopsychie) , proposed by Boirac {Psychologie Inconnue, Paris, 
1908, p. 116, etc.). The elementary and classical example of 
cryptopsychism, discovered a quarter of a century ago by Binet, 
Janet, etc., is that of the hysteric in whom the tactile excitation 
of an anaesthetic finger, although not felt by the subject, was, 
nevertheless, seen by her as a visual image of this finger. One 
might say, in a general way, that cryptopsychism is the process 
by which an afferent sensation which remains unperceived and 
ignored by the subject provokes an efferent phenomenon which 
seems to arise spontaneously by itself without apparent cause. 
It must be understood that a production of this kind, of which 
the subject has not the consciousness of being the author, might 
easily be attributed to spirits, however little it appears to war- 
rant that explanation. As to the subconscious functioning 
(polygonal of Grasset) of various faculties — sensibilities, memory, 

114 



^'BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

cases which prevent an unfortunate man from taking 
his Hfe. It manifests itself, also, to protect the in- 
dividual against dangers of which he has no knowl- 
edge — imminent, distant, or only probable; more 
often still, to inform him and guide him to his ad- 
vantage in the little occurrences of life. As for psychic 
facts, scarcely noticed, we could hardly tell whether 
or not they were willed by ourselves, so completely 
is their origin lost in the marginal regions of our per- 
sonality, and which, when we reflect upon it, astonish 
us by their admirable adaptation to circumstances. 
Forgotten memories, returning at a favorable mo- 
ment, repartees which are h propos, and which sur- 
prise us ourselves, suppressed after-thoughts, inex- 
plicable hesitations preventing us from action, or, on 
the contrary, obscure impulses which we are glad we 
have followed, good ideas, illuminating thoughts, 
inspirations of genius which flash into our heads and 
bring us unexpected help; in fact, all that we call 
"tact," ''presence of mind," "inspiration," or "in- 
tuition"; all that is at the basis of teleological au- 
tomatisms and fill our whole lives — the study of all 
this is well worth the most painstaking research and 
analysis. 

Here, for example, after having sought a book in 
my library, I am about to leave my room to see if I 
cannot find it in another room, when something holds 

imagination, will, etc. — and upon the attempts at cerebral locali- 
zation of this psychic automatic activity, see Grasset: The 
Marvels Beyond Science, New York, 1910. 

9 115 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

me back. Instinctively I return toward a little table, 
and my gaze falls immediately upon the book in 
question, lost amidst others of the same color. The 
latent memory of this misplacing of the book came, 
then, subconsciously to direct my steps and my gaze 
to this place. From what time dated this memory 
I cannot tell; perhaps for some moments, since I 
had looked at this table in my useless search, and I 
overlooked the book, confusing it with its neighbors; 
perhaps some weeks, for I alone had placed the book 
there (though I do not recall it) . These two hypotheses 
which exist fundamentally side by side — crypioes- 
tkesia (latent perception) and cryptomnesia (latent 
memory), deal with actual ideas which, not noticed 
directly and of themselves, act, however, and are 
translated into consciousness by means of the phe- 
nomena with which they are associated — inhibitions, 
or motor impulses, images and ideas, emotions, hal- 
lucinations; — it all depends upon temperament. 

If I were, however, a little imaginative, hysterical, 
a poet, unbalanced, a genius, or a medium, the insig- 
nificant adventure which I have related would, with- 
out doubt, assume the proportions of a psychic 
phenomenon more or less important. I should — e.g., 
have heard a voice say to me, ' * Seek on the little table," 
etc. Or I should have seen arise before me a distinct 
image, quite recognizable, of the table containing the 
lost volume; or I might have seen this in a dream; 
or, better still, by means of the crystal ball the image 
would have appeared to me as an exterior vision in 

ii6 



''BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

the glass ball. ... Or again, my "guardian angel," 
clothed in white, would appear before me and forbid 
my leaving the room, and would have brought me by 
the hand to the aforementioned table; or, perhaps 
by typtology or automatic writing it would have 
dictated to me where the looked-for object rested. 
But this interpretation appears to me, until proved to 
the contrary, arbitrary and superfluous. The facts 
with which it deals are explained much more simply 
by some cryptopsychic process with which imagina- 
tion has mixed its customary appearance of spiritism. 
Some unpublished examples will enable the reader 
to judge for himself. I divide them into three or 
four headings, which have many points in common. 

I. Premonittcns Induced by Subconscious Percep- 
tion (Cryptcesthesia) . — So many facts of this kind 
have been published^ that I experience some scruples 
in adding to the number. I shall limit myself to 
two examples, in which death was avoided by an 
automatic impulse to flee, with the accompaniment 
of auditory or visual hallucinations. The first case 
is that of a merchant whose spirit of enterprise caused 
him to travel across South America. From the facts 
which I have gathered from his own mouth, he heard, 
at different times in his momentous life, a mysterious 
voice, always the same, very short and incisive, giv- 
ing him counsel or warning. Of a temperament 

^ See the large collection of cases published by Myers, Proceed- 
ings, S. P. R., vol. xi, pp. 411-585. 

117 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

essentially practical and positive, a stranger to all 

philosophical or religious interests, Mr. X had 

no theory as regards this "voice," and he contented 
himself with simply recording the facts. In two 
cases the voice saved his life, as well as the lives of 
the Indians who accompanied him and who served as 
guides in his adventures. 

On one occasion, as his party had just halted under 

a tree to prepare a meal, Mr. X heard a voice 

command him, "Save yourself!" and he forced his 
men to strike camp at once. Scarcely had they done 
so when the tree fell with a crash on the very place 
which they had just occupied. They would all have 
been killed had not this premonition occurred. An 
examination of the trunk showed that it was entirely 
rotten, and, so to say, hollowed out by white ants. 
Another time, descending a river in a canoe, they 
were just about to run close to a promontory when 
the same voice imperiously ordered them immediate- 
ly to cross the river and gain the other shore as quickly 

as possible. This appeared so absurd that Mr. X 

was obliged to threaten the Indians with death to 
force them to take this course. They had scarcely 
crossed more than half the river when the promontory 
fell, causing a whirlpool in the water, which would 
have capsized the boat and undoubtedly swallowed 
them up if they had continued in the first direction. 

On these two occasions the voice, says Mr. X , 

had a character so imperative that no hesitation was 
possible, and he was forced to obey it, and to make 

ii8 



^'BENEFICENT SPIRITS'! 

his men obey it. The verbal automatism, in other 
words, was accompanied by a cenesthesic and emo- 
tional automatism (sentiment of imminent danger and 
impulse to flee), of which the origin consisted in 
visual perceptions (traces of termites, the aspect of 
the river-banks, etc.), or auditory perceptions (pre- 
liminary crackings) remaining unperceived by the 
ordinary personality. 

The second case is a little more obscure, and it is 
complicated by an apparition or symbolical personi- 
fication. 

An Austrian lady, Mme. Brey, very intelligent and 
of great will-power, but of a very nervous tempera- 
ment, had a great number of psychic phenomena, 
which she herself explains in the most natural manner, 
with the exception of one which particularly struck 
her and appeared to her entirely mysterious. Before 
going to pass the winter at Madeira for her health, 
and when already on the boat, she saw the apparition 
of one of her absent doctors, whose look made her 
understand that she was threatened with a great 
danger, and that she ought to disembark with the 
greatest possible speed, which she did immediately, 
in a sort of dream-like state. Well for her, for she 
learned later that the plague was ravaging Madeira, 
and that the said boat was shipwrecked! 

At first sight this history of a shipwreck avoided 
appeared to me to furnish a splendid case in favor of 
some supernormal faculty of precognition. I believed 

119 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

myself even to have found in it a striking illustration 
of the theory which the great literary prophet of the 
occult, Maeterlinck, elaborated in his chapter upon 
''Chance." According to him, chance consists simply 
in that the future, hidden from our mortal eye, is 
eternally present to our unconsciousness (Myers said 
to our subliminal consciousness), which succeeds 
sometimes in keeping the danger from us. . . . 

The case of Mme. Brey is a very good illustration of 
the manner in which the supernormal generally van- 
ishes when we come to inquire into it a little more 
closely. For, in this case, it appears that the ship 
was not in reality wrecked at all. And as for the 
plague, Mme. Brey could have learned all about it 
normally before her departure. So that the most 
natural supposition is that Mme. Brey heard this fact, 
but simply forgot it until externalized in the form of 
the warning figure — ^which warned her not to sail. 

I therefore fail to see in this case any evidence of 
precognition, or even of telepathy from the absent 
doctor. 

2 . Phantasmagoria Induced by Internal Sensations. — 
In the same manner as in external perceptions, so can 
internal sensations (visceral, cenesthesic, organic, 
etc.^) serve as points of departure or inducers of 

^ See, however, the extended review by Mr. Piddington (Pro- 
ceedings, S. P. R., vol. xix, pp. 267-341) of Dr. Henry Head's 
Goulstonian Lectures for 1901, in which veridical and visceral 
types of hallucination are compared, and many points of dissimi- 
larity shown to exist — apart from the coincidence itself. — Tr. 

120 



^'BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

automatisms apparently supernormal, as in dreams, 
said to be prophetic, of sickness or of cure, which are 
only a dramatized expression by the imagination of 
the sleeper of vital processes already begun in the 
depths of the tissues and of which we are unaware in 
the distractions of the day's work. These hallucina- 
tory phenomena are more rare and much more strik- 
ing outside hypnogogic hallucinations, etc. Here is an 
unpublished case, which I owe to Mme. de B : 

My mother, a posthumous infant, had never 
known her father (his photograph no longer existed) . 
She loved and regarded as her true father, however, 
the second husband of my grandmother. It is, then, 
not very probable that her thoughts should be fixed 
upon the memory of her real father at a moment 
when she felt herself very ill and in danger of death — 
at my birth. A phenomenon necessary to the ac- 
couchement was slow in making its appearance; she 
suffered much, but, from what she said, preserved 
her consciousness. At this critical moment she per- 
ceived, upon the threshold of the door of her room, 
facing her bed, a man leaning against the side of the 
door; she looked at him without knowing who he was. 
He was dressed in blue, with gold buttons. He ap- 
proached her bed. He placed his hand on her head 
and said to her: ''My beloved child, fear nothing; 
thou shalt not die; 'that' is going to happen." Some 
seconds after "that" did occur, and my mother was 
saved. Later she described to my grandmother this 

121 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

strange apparition, and asked if it was that of her 
father. My grandmother confirmed this, and said: 
''Your father, who died by accident, looked Hke that, 
and his clothing corresponded to what you saw." My 
mother died without ever having again seen her 
father. 

In such a case the spiritists have no doubt that it is 
the deceased father himself who came to comfort his 
daughter in this grave condition, and it does not 
astonish them, either, that this apparition should 
clothe himself for her in his blue coat; or that the 
father was more familiar than the patient herself with 
the physiological processes which were about to take 
place. Psychologists, stumbling at this double sin- 
gularity, consider it more plausible to see in this 
hallucinatory scene a dramatic combination of long- 
forgotten auditory memories, some description for- 
merly heard, then completely forgotten, toward which 
the thought of his daughter would be turned in the 
crisis through which she was passing.^ 

^ Every one knows with what faciUty descriptions which we 
read or hear set on fire the visual imagination, and are translated 
into representations more or less vivid. These concrete repre- 
sentations once born may subsist in the latent memory and 
reappear, even when one can no longer remember the occasion 
which first of all provoked them. " A lady of my acquaintance," 
wrote Doctor Prince, "gave me a very exact description of a 
person whom she had seen in a dream, whom she had never met in 
reality. She had completely forgotten that I had described that 
person to her a few days before. The description which she gave 
me after her dream was an exact reproduction of mine, and in the 
same terms!" (Morton Prince, "The Unconscious," Journal of 
Abnormal Psychology, vol. iii, October, 1908, p. 265.) 

132 



''BENEFICENT SPIRITSV' 

3 . Cryptomnesic Revelations. — The following section 
treats of cryptomnesia in so far as it vitiates the 
greater part of the phenomena of spiritism, but it is 
convenient to speak of it here as a source of teleolog- 
ical automatisms, which convey to the subject valu- 
able information already in his possession, but of 
which he is ignorant. The classical example is that of 
dreams which enable lost articles to be found, showing 
the sleeper the place where he had forgotten he let 
them fall. If this happens to a person with a bias 
toward spiritism he will probably attribute this vision 
to his "guardian angel," so much so, indeed, that 
the latter will probably intervene, in the vision, and 
indicate by a gesture or voice, if not by some more 
complicated mediumistic manifestation, the place 
where the misplaced object lies (see, e.g., the example 
of the lost breast-pin in From India, etc., pp. 403-406). 
The psychologist explains the phenomenon in a more 
natural manner, contending that the loss of the object 
— of the stone of a ring, e.g., not remarked by the self, 
momentarily abstracted or absorbed in other dis- 
tractions — has, nevertheless, been perceived by in- 
direct vision, and registered in the subconscious, 
where it reissues in sleep, or in some other hypnoidal 
state. 

There is, I admit, something paradoxical in the fact 
that an incident so important as the loss of a precious 
stone does not strike the attention of the individual, 
while subconsciously impressing him enough to be 
clearly remembered and be recalled. And certainly 

123 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

the teleological organization of this individual would 
have been more perfect if instead of returning to him 
in a dream the completion of the incident had occurred 
immediately ; he would then only have had to bend 
down and pick up the jewel, and this would have 
spared him the chagrin of finding that he had lost it, 
and the trouble of looking for it. But, on the 
spiritistic theory, the paradox is not less true. Why 
did not the good angel who saw the jewel fall have 
the consideration immediately to warn the owner 
instead of letting him re-enter the house and lament 
until the night? Ce n'est pas gentil! And it seems 
to me more respectful, not only toward the methodo- 
logical principle of economy, but also to the reputa- 
tion of good spirits, not to attribute to these lat- 
ter the imperfections which are inherent in our 
own nature — lapses of memory, mental dissociations, 
etc. 

Among the varieties of cryptomnesia I give a case 
of latent knowledge which the subject knows him- 
self to have possessed, but which he cannot recover; 
and the unexpected revival is attributed by his 
imagination to the intervention of a strange per- 
sonality. Here is an example, non-spiritistic, which 
was communicated to me some years ago by Mme. 
Thomas-Coulin, and which is explained by the com- 
bination of two very simple facts — first, the direct 
evocation of a forgotten memory; and second, the 
tendency to represent the absent — speaking and act- 
ing as if they were present: 

124 



''BENEFICENT SPIRITS'' 

The following incident happened the other day to 
my father (Pastor Coulin), almost blind. He enjoyed 
discussing theology and philosophy with Professor 
Frommel. He suffered slightly from loss of memory 
of proper names, and he obstinately sought for that 
one which had been given to the system of Leibnitz. 
After a moment's pause he said, "I shall ask Frommel 
the next time I see him." At the same instant he 
plainly saw Professor Frommel before him, and heard 
his voice saying, "It is pre-established harmony!" 

Among the spiritists, if it had concerned a dead 
person such a process of reminiscence with dramatiza- 
tion would inevitably pass for a proof of the inter- 
vention of the discarnate, 

4. Subconscious Conjectures. — We all have the pre- 
cious faculty of divining, more or less, the unknown 
in accordance with our acquired experience ; and our 
presumptions are often correct. Now it happens that 
this power of reasoning — evaluation of probabilities, 
various inferences, etc. — is effected in the obscure 
margins of our consciousness which is preoccupied 
with something else, and that the conclusion alone 
springs forth full blown in the shape of a presenti- 
ment which imposes itself upon us with an air of 
immediate certitude. Upon reflection one can usual- 
ly follow the chain and disentangle the sequence of 
ideas or incidents which have brought about this 
result. But this is not always easy. Most people, 
moreover, do not ever think of attempting it, and 

125 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

their presentiments (those, at least, which are veri- 
fied, for the others are often forgotten) remain en- 
graven on their memory as mysterious and inex- 
pHcable phenomena. It is a fine groundwork for 
mediumistic embellishments and spiritistic interpre- 
tations. Here is an example: 

M. Ledoc, merchant, attended out of curiosity a 
number of seances held by a family of his friends. 
They were held at five o'clock in the afternoon, so 
that he could go there direct from his office. At one 
of these meetings (at which I was present), after 
various trials with no noticeable result, he placed 
himself alone at tlie table, which immediately began 
to crack, then to make raps. M. Ledoc had a very 
rapid trembling of his right wrist, his arms being 
tense, and soon his whole body vibrated in unison 
with the movements of the table. In spite of these 
signs of automatism he preserved sufficient presence 
of mind to speak with us freely, and to spell out the 
words himself. At first these were only incoherent 
letters; but after about a quarter of an hour, 
the following series of letters was slowly spelled 
out: tuseraismieuxauedaubureauqueici — of which M. 
Ledoc could make no sense. But it was quite clear 
to me, who had noted the letters. It was, tu serais 
mieux au bureau qu'ici. Without telling him, I 
begged him to ask some questions of the table; 
and the following dialogue took place between the 
table and himself: 

126 



**BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

''Why this dictation?" (Reply, two blows; that 
is to say, ''No.") 

"Who is there?" 

(No reply.) 

"Is it an independent spirit?" 

"No"; then, "yes." ^ 

The table then spelled out: "A telegram awaits 
you. It comes from Austria. It is very impor- 
tant." M. Ledoc then decided to return to his office, 
and found there a telegram from Vienna, which had 
arrived at Geneva at 4.55 p.m. It proved to be very 
important — involving a transaction of about 60,000 
francs. 

Upon reflection, and after talking with M. Ledoc, 
however, the thing appears to me less astonishing. 
First, the telegram was from his ordinary correspon- 
dent in Vienna, and concerned an affair which he more 
or less expected. Then, he was in the habit of re- 

^ Here are the details of this little episode, where we see, as 
often, the naive subconsciousness, not at first giving itself to be 
a separate spirit, hastening, nevertheless, to accept the sugges- 
tion which was made to it by one of the company. M. Ledoc asks, 
"Who is there?" (No reply.) "Is it a spirit?" "No." M. 
Ledoc keeps silent a moment, then asks : " Are you always there ?" 
" Yes," New silence. I request M. Ledoc to ask if it is a part of 
himself, or an independent spirit. He appears a little astonished, 
and asks only the second part of the question: ** Are you an inde- 
pendent spirit ?" " Yes!" An amusing effect of this episode was 
the change of tone in the table toward M. Ledoc. Before it 
called him thou, but after it accepted the suggestion that it was an 
independent spirit it called him you — as if it were speaking to a 
strange person! 

127 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

ceiving every day at least fifteen or eighteen tele- 
grams, and often, in making his calls in various towns, 
he had presentiments which brought him back to his 
office sooner than he expected, to find there unfore- 
seen, and important news. There is nothing astonish- 
ing in the fact that, having closed his office on this 
special afternoon a little before the usual time, he 
should have the afterthought that he might lose some 
business, and that he might have done better to stay 
in the office, as the table suggested. Finally, the pre- 
tended spirit — which had before hesitated as to its 
independent reality from M. Ledoc — ^was not sure as 
to the contents of the telegram. All this gives rise 
to the suspicion that this mediumistic manifestation 
was only a translation of one of his habitual presenti- 
ments, which was verified — like so many others — by 
a happy chance in no way extraordinary. 

This example of a useful typtological message — the 
result of simple suggestions or of subconscious con- 
jectures — shows once more with what facility the 
products of cryptopsychism, when in a propitious en- 
vironment, clothe themselves with the appearance of 
spiritistic manifestations. This appearance becomes 
naturally more striking and irresistible according to 
whether the cases are complicated by the interplay of 
several mediums and the co-operation of various forms 
of cryptopsychism, and perhaps a certain balance of 
supernormal knowledge due to telepathy, etc. 

I could multiply indefinitely examples of crypto- 
psychism. But the above will at least suffice to draw 

128 



•'BENEFICENT SPIRITS 



) i 



the attention of the reader to such phenomena, and 
I accordingly pass to another class of teleological 
automatisms, which do not differ' essentially from 
those we have just examined, since they still con- 
cern facts of which the subject is not conscious of 
being the author, however much they correspond to 
his desires, and represent advantages to him — if not 
vital, at least intellectual and social. 

3. THE MARVELS OF INCUBATION 

When the ''beneficent spirits" display to the ut- 
most their obliging natures is when they charge them- 
selves with our affairs while we do something else or 
are asleep. I shall omit for the present those cases 
of material help — such as sweeping the house or pre- 
paring the breakfast, etc., which are accomplished so 
quickly during the night, in order to spare the poor, 
tired people — by the gnomes, the hobgoblins, and 
other brownies of legends. Science, which depoetizes 
everything, has long since dismissed this gracious little 
world and replaced it by somnambulistic attacks of 
the person himself. I shall treat only of the mental 
phenomena, rendered by the hidden powers of our na- 
ture, which continue to solve our problems when we no 
longer think of them ; and I shall give first an example 
which happened years before modern spiritism came 

into existence. 

The Fish of Agassiz 

In 1832, the famous naturalist Agassiz was busy 
with his monumental work on fossil fishes. In many 

129 



I 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

cases it was not easy to determine the character of th 
fish from the imprint left upon the slab of stone which 
he possessed, and one in particular was so imperfect 
that he could not at all reconstruct the fish from the 
imprint left upon the slab. 

It was at this juncture that he experienced three 
dreams, on succeeding nights. On the first two occa- 
sions the bones of this fish appeared to him in a dream- 
vision, but so confused that he could make nothing 
of them. On the third night, however, the bones of the 
fish again appeared, at first muddled, as before; but 
later they became clearer and more definite in shape, 
until the entire fish stood reconstructed before him. 
He then drew upon paper, in the dark, a copy of this 
vision; and in the morning he found it as a proof of 
the reality of his experience. On again consulting the 
slab he found that it was doubtless correct, though it 
would apparently have been impossible for him to 
have reconstructed the fish from the slab alone, since 
many of the bones, and especially important bones, 
such as the prseopercular, had left no impression at 
all. 

This dream of Agassiz — very rarely found in such 
perfection in a good observer — calls for one or two 
remarks. 

I. The nocturnal vision of Agassiz is remarkably 
pure from all the usual embellishments of the dream. 
With a mentality less positive, or with spiritistic 
inclinations, the fish might have been presented, with 
appropriate setting, by some messenger from the other 

130 



''BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

world, or by a fisherman of prehistoric times. The 
presence or absence of theatrical complications about 
the solution of a problem depends without doubt, also, 
upon the nature of the moment, for extreme cases 
may be met with even in the same subjects. For 
example, a professor of Assyriology, M. Hilprecht, 
had once a nocturnal revelation which told him the 
true sense of an inscription, while some years later 
the mystery of another inscription was revealed to 
him in a dream, with the striking setting of an Assy- 
rian temple and a high priest, who caused him to see 
all kinds of astonishing and exact things. 

The analysis of the details of this curious dream 
shows, however, that they could be traced back to 
latent memories or to natural inferences of the savant.^ 

2. It seems that in the dream of Agassiz there 
might have been some trace of lucidity, since his 
reconstructed fish presented to him certain details — 
a denticulated prasopercular bone, etc., which he had 
never before remarked upon the fossil imprint, and 
which former observers had also not perceived, and 
which his chisel succeeded in disengaging from the 
stone only after much effort. His description is, how- 
ever, not concise enough for us to conclude it to be a 
phenomenon of clairvoyance into the interior of the 
stone; and it is more simple to admit that his vision 
was the result either of conscious inferences drawn 
from signs and marks escaping the normal attention; 
or from a true genius, which enabled him to guess, 

* See Newbold, Proceedings, S. P. R., vol. xii, pp. 11-20. 
10 131 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

from the visible part of the skeleton, what ought to be 
the remainder of it. However curious such cases as 
this of Agassiz are, they do not afford evidence of 
spiritistic intervention, which I had in mind in writing 
this chapter. 

Certainly, they place before us an enigma — viz., the 
true nature of those hidden processes which suddenly 
bloom forth in results, vainly sought for until then. 
But this enigma does not essentially differ from the 
ordinary and normal incubation, which, in each, dur- 
ing the hours of sleep, prepares for us the renewal of 
mental work in such a manner as to render its con- 
tinuation more fruitful and rapid ; it is the paradoxical 
problem of an activity which physiology holds to be 
purely physico-chemical {i.e., mechanical in the last 
analysis) but which, however, appears to us to mani- 
fest an intelligent direction — a choice, a tendency 
toward the ends and aims which the conscious person- 
ality had set before itself ; in short, an evident finality. 
Now this problem, by reason of its universality in the 
whole biological realm, ought to be abandoned to the 
philosophers. It is certainly not for scientific psychol- 
ogy to venture upon the ocean of such speculations — 
if it does not wish to expose itself, and to fall between 
Scylla and Charybdis — I should say, to be indefinitely 
tossed between the obsolete conceptions of "uncon- 
scious celebration" (dear to materialism) and the 
daring hypotheses of the ''transcendental subject" of 
DuPrel, of the ''Subliminal Self" of Myers, of "the 
Unconscious" (omniscient) of Hartmann, etc. Let us 

132 



"BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

follow rather the example of the physicists, who study 
the fall of bodies and celestial movements without 
concerning themselves with the nature of gravitation. 
Things happen in this material universe, they tell us, 
as if bodies were attracted to each other according to 
such and such laws, of no consequence elsewhere. 
Whether they really are attracted, or whether they are 
really the passive playthings of an exterior pressure, 
is another question. Let us content ourselves by say- 
ing, in like manner, that things happen in the mental 
life as if we possessed in ourselves an intelligent "incu- 
bator," which continues to hatch out ideas and answer 
questions which we have confided to its care ; a labora- 
tory wisely administered, in which the ingredients 
placed within it are allowed to simmer and are elabo- 
rated into new products, according to our ideas and 
our designs. 

It is immaterial whether we call this precious insti- 
tution by the name of nerve -center or subliminal 
imagination or anything else ; the important thing for 
us is to know the influence exerted upon its function- 
ing by the state of the health, the former meditations, 
the time elapsed, the distractions or occupations, etc. 
In default of precise information, which is still lack- 
ing, we know at least one law of common experience. 
It is that every one reaps only what he has sown. The 
harvest varies enormously, without doubt, according 
to the individual soil; but, apart from these differ- 
ences of fertility, we may say that all brains — brains of 
geniuses or mediocre brains — render to their owners 

133 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

the same kind of service, that of maturing what has 
occupied the conscious thought and provoked volun- 
tary reflection. 

Agassiz formed no exception to the rule. Before 
having the vision of his fish he had worked fifteen 
days in vain upon its fossil remains, and it appears 
from his account that this problem pursued him dur- 
ing the period of incubation (the duration of which, 
unfortunately, he has neglected to indicate to us). 
This only shows that even the most brilliant intel- 
ligences, in the ordinary course of events, obtain 
nothing without effort — which is another way of ex- 
pressing the empirical law above mentioned. ... It is 
only with the spiritists that we find the true marvels 
of incubation — or rather of its absence. 

Our mediums indeed reap what they have not 
sown, and it is not in thinking of it all the time that 
they make their discoveries, but, on the contrary, by 
not thinking of it at all ! . . . Let us ask the authors of 
mediumistic writings which come to light each year 
what part they have played in them besides their 
function as a writing machine through which the 
spirits operate. They will reply that their inspira- 
tions came to them not only without effort, but 
without any preparation or antecedent cause. Voilh! 
We must agree that this is truly marvelous, and be- 
yond all ordinary conditions of mental production. 
And the spiritists certainly reason according to the 
most elementary common sense when they attribute 
to discarnate intelligences the authorship of these 

134 



"BENEFICENT SPIRITS'* 

revelations, to which the organism of the medium is 
quite foreign, and has simply served as a channel or 
passive instrument. The libraries of modern spirit- 
ism are choked with works of all kinds — philosophy, 
science, literature, verse and prose, which have been 
composed in this way; and if I began to quote I 
should not know when to stop — from the dictations 
of the Angel Gabriel and of Christ Himself to a group 
of Geneva spiritists more than half a century ago; 
to the recent discourses of Abelard (the lover of poor 
Heloise), written by two ladies of the best Parisian 
society; to the ''Spirit Teachings" which Rector, 
Imperator, etc., gave to Stainton Moses; the Spin- 
tualisation de VEtre of Mme. Darel, the posthumous 
book of Dickens, the revelations of Mrs. Smead rela- 
tive to Mars and its inhabitants. . . . 

But here I am forced to stop my enumeration, 
since it awakens all my doubts, recalling to me the 
romances of Mile. Smith. For certainly the revela- 
tions of this latter upon the Martian language or the 
unknown history of ancient India do not give first 
place to any of the preceding in brilliance or in ori- 
ginality.* If then, as I believe I have sufficiently 

» It is well known that for some years Mile. Smith has made, in 
trance, pictures of religious subjects, which have had an immense 
success with the public. But this new form of her mediumship 
does not differ from the old; being due to the influence of sugges- 
tion and slow incubation, as has been well shown by Lemaltre, 
" Un Nouveau Cycle Somnambulique de Mile. Smith : ses Peintures 
religieuses," Arch, de Psychol, T. vii, Juillet, 1907, p. 6^. Upon 
the esthetic value of these pictures, see Fleury, id., September. 
1907, p. 206. 

135 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



demonstrated elsewhere, these lucubrations (truly] 
astounding at first sight) may be traced without any! 
appreciable supernormal residue to the very natural 
processes of incubation, initiated by exterior sug- 
gestions and maintained by the desire of the medium 
to reply to the expectations of her environment,! 
and fed by her stock of latent information and child-] 
hood memories, how can we be sure that it is not] 
the same in those cases, much less extraordinary,] 
which fill the libraries of spiritists ? And where is the 
proof that the automatists who have lent their table! 
or their pencil to all these compositions proceeding] 
from the "other world" have not been able to drawl 
them from their own depths, and to be themselves 
the authors?^ Now, the least thought of this kinc 
suffices to shake the confidence which one would have 
in the demonstration of spiritism through these pre-j 
tended works of discarnates. I know, indeed, that 
contrary proof — that of their terrene origin — is some- 
times just as impossible to furnish. We are nol 

* Such an explanation seems, however, hardly to explain some ol 
the books automatically written by mediums — such as Nature*^ 
Divine Revelations, by Andrew Jackson Davis, and The Arcana oj 
Nature, by Hudson Tuttle — both written when their authors were 
ignorant country boys — ^yet in their teens — but containing, ii 
several instances, facts which the scientific world did not as yet 
accept. Thus, Tuttle's Arcana was finished when he was in hie 
eighteenth year (p. 55) and contained many striking and thei 
unknown scientific facts. It was quoted by both Biichner {Forct 
and Matter, p. 123, etc.) and Darwin {Descent of Man, p. 178), 
See Tuttle's own account of the manner of production of this bool 
in the Arcana, new ed., with Introduction by Dr. Emmet Dens^ 
more, pp. 39-64. — Tr. 

136 



"BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

always able to assign with certainty, in particular 
cases, the initial suggestions which have given the 
impetus to the incubation — the emotional tendencies 
which have directed it, the varied conditions whose 
influence it has suppressed. A deep obscurity reigns 
too often upon these various points. Very rare are 
those persons gifted with psychic power who take 
the trouble to analyze their own phenomena as did 
Miss Freer and Miss F. Miller,^ in order to attempt to 
discover a natural explanation in the circumstances 
of their past life, their temperament, etc. Whether 
from amnesia, idleness of mind, or lack of will — due 
to the fear of seeing this aureole of mystery vanish from 
"the Beyond," whence issue their automatisms — the 
majority of mediums do not furnish us much real in- 
formation as to the sources — often very ordinary — • 
of their information ; and the believing spiritists who 
share, in a higher degree, this instinctive aversion to 
the light — too incredulous of scientific explanations — 
do not usually assist the seeker in his attempts at 
a "naturalization of the supernatural" (to use an 
expression of Podmore's), even if they do not try to 
thwart them; also we are often reduced to the most 
meager hints as to the genesis and real evolution of 
the mediumistic compositions. But that ought not 
to make us forget the methodological principle that 
the onus probandi, the task of demonstration, depends 

* Miss Goodrich - Freer, Essays in Psychical Research, London, 
1899; Miss Prank Miller, "Some Instances of Subconscious Crea- 
tive Imagination," Journal, Amer. S. P. R., June, 1907. 

137 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

upon the partisans of the supernormal, not upon those 
who uphold ordinary explanations ; it is for the first to 
establish positively that the work obtained by their 
mediums escapes the normal laws of the phenomena 
of incubation and subconscious "blossoming." 

With regard to the following examples, I shall 
limit myself to some features which seem to indicate 
that they may be traced to the process of incubation, 
presenting nothing supernormal. I reserve for the 
last the case of Dickens, upon which I have something 
more to say; and I commence with that of Mrs. 
Smead, which has suggested to me many of the 
preceding reflections. 

The Case of Mrs. Smead, Etc} 

This American lady, wife of an Anglican clergyman, 
cultivated automatic writing and drawing as an 
amateur. The communications which she received 
from her three children and her brother-in-law (con- 

^ See J. H. Hyslop, "The Smead Case," Annals of Psychical 
Science, September, 1906; "Apparent Subconscious Fabrication," 
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, December, 1906; " A Preliminary 
Report on the Trance Phenomena of Mrs. Smead," Proceedings, 
Amer. S. P. R., vol. i, part 3, etc. Outside her Martian romance, 
Mrs. Smead has had many other communications from supposed 
discarnate minds. Dr. Hyslop, who has given to all these docu- 
ments a profound examination, and who has devoted to them a 
lengthy report, believes that they include items of spirit com- 
munication; so that he considers the mediumship of Mrs. Smead 
to be an intermediary case between the pseudo-mediumship of 
Mile. Smith and the true mediumship of Mrs. Piper. I am not 
competent to pronounce upon this. 

138 




"dr. HODGSON WR 

(Oh yes, Black Bird, I said just for fun. 




^-^iA^^ru 



iro'A^^ 



K^ 



^-^V^wtX/^^'-^j 



- />y9\y^^ >-^*-A-y 



HROUGH MRS. PIPER 

ington, old chap, I am glad to know you.) 



I 



''BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

cerning people, things, and the language of the planet 
Mars) came to her at two separate times, after an 
interruption of five years. The first time was in 
1895, a short time after the publication of an article, 
very widely read, in the Atlantic Monthly, on the 
"Canals on the Planet Mars," by the astronomer 
Lowell; and the second time in 1900, when the volume 
From India, etc., was in the house, but hidden, so it is 
said, from Mrs. Smead in order not to influence her by 
the Martian designs or the drawings of Mile. Smith. 
Mr. and Mrs. Smead do not appear to admit that 
these exterior circumstances have taken any part in 
the birth of their astronomical romance ; but one must 
at least acknowledge that such coincidences are very 
singular; and as the Martian revelations of Mrs. 
Smead present the same character of puerility and 
naive imagination as those of Mile. Smith — although 
they differ greatly in details — I cannot but think that 
the psychological explanation is at basis the same. . . . 

The *' Divine Revelations'* at Geneva in 1854 

When the great spiritistic epidemic raged over Eu- 
rope in the middle of the last century Geneva was by 
no means spared. The only monument which exists 
as a memory of this fever is a collection of communi- 
cations from Christ and his angels, obtained by 
means of the table by a little group of ministers and 
professors, with their families. This volume, of a 
mysticism quite orthodox, but insipid and foolish 
enough to give one nausea, seems to be a bad con- 

139 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

glomerate of pious sermons of the epoch of the 
Renaissance. If we did not know how spiritistic 
practices are apt to lead astray the investigators' 
heads, as well as their tables, one could never under- 
stand how intelligent people, respectful of religion, 
dared to publish such mediocrities, giving them out as 
"Words of the Saviour," "Hymn of the Angel Ga- 
briel," "Song of Love of the Son of God for His 
Church," etc. . . . Psychologically, this rubbish has 
only interested me as an example of the low level of 
degradation which frequently characterizes medium- 
istic productions — they reflect the ideas and the senti- 
ments of the circle and the environment, but in an 
inferior manner and form, and indicate a relapse into 
the condition of childhood. 

The "Spirit Teachings'* of Stainton Moses 

We know that Mr. Moses was first a clergyman of 
the Anglican Church — very orthodox and rigid in his 
beliefs. Later, however, he developed mediumship 
in his own person — physical phenomena and auto- 
matic writing. "Spirits" used his table and his hand 
to communicate to him their 'teaching. But the 
philosophico-religious doctrines which they revealed 
to him formed such a contrast, by reason of their 
breadth of view, their symbolical interpretation of 
the Christian dogmas, their whole tendency, in a word, 
made such a contrast to the traditional theology which 
Moses beheved, that his conversion to this teaching 
was not accomplished without great anguish. It was 

140 



"BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

only after some months of resistance, of interior wars, 
of discussions with his spiritual guide, that he gave 
himself up to it, and thenceforth brought to the 
defense of his new faith all the ardor, the conviction, 
the high intellectual and moral qualities which he 
had placed at the service of the old. Does it not 
seem impossible to pretend to trace back to an or- 
dinary process of incubation, in the case of Stainton 
Moses, the genesis of these automatic messages, of a 
content so contrary to his personal ideas, and of 
which the supposed authors offer all the appearances 
of well-characterized individuals, conscious of them- 
selves, independent of himself ? . . . 

Nevertheless, apart from the fact that these so- 
called discarnates have never given a positive proof 
of their identity, and, setting aside their physical 
manifestations, of which I shall speak later, they do 
not in any way surpass the play of dramatic personi- 
fication of subconscious imagination — the opposition 
between their doctrine and that to which Moses was 
accustomed did not exceed the conflict which might 
have been created by the reflections of his own mind. 
Very intelligent, well read, having traveled, it is diffi- 
cult to believe that Moses had never been shaken in 
the narrowness of his orthodoxy by interior doubts 
in this contact with different minds. These doubts, 
suppressed in some measure by his constancy and 
obstinacy, must have accumulated in the subcon- 
scious mind and become organized into a system of 
affirmation, very different from his primitive beliefs, 

141 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

and finally attained a degree of tension sufficient to 
cause their eruption in his trances. These were stimu- 
lated by the suggestions of the environment, and 
plenty of time was allowed for the necessary sub- 
conscious elaboration. From the moment in which 
Stainton Moses began the study of spiritism to that 
when he declared his mediumship there elapsed about 
two years filled with reading, experiments, and dis- 
cussions upon this subject with his friends, the Speers, 
with whom he lived. Often he proposed questions to 
his spirit guides upon points of detail, to which they 
only replied some days later. It is said that even 
superior spirits sometimes have the need of reflecting 
a certain length of time upon problems which are 
placed before them. But as Moses was also a superior 
mind, quite capable himself of finding a solution to 
these problems, I do not see what advantage there 
is in proposing these difficulties when he himself 
might just as well have solved them. To sum up, 
before admitting the true supernormal origin of the 
automatically revealed ''Spirit Teachings" of Stain- 
ton Moses, we must first of all be sure that he himself 
was not capable of elaborating them subconsciously. 
To my mind, he was quite capable. 

Posthumous Discourses of Abelard 

In these messages, obtained by means of automat- 
ic writing, this illustrious scholar has so far lost his 
personality of eight centuries ago that we no longer 
recognize it. He shows himself feeble and weak when 

142 



''BENEFICENT SPIRITS'* 

interrogated upon universalities or conceptualism. In 
turn, he preaches doctrines perfectly conformable to 
those in vogue in actual spiritistic circles. Some signs 
in the Introduction of the volume permit the psychol- 
ogist to divine, to a certain extent, the natural con- 
catenation of events which brought the imagination 

of Mme. de V and her medium to personate this 

particular character rather than any other person 
who had died. Curious only as an example of auto- 
matic lucubration, this book has no evidential value, 
not even, I imagine, for the convinced spiritist, who 
has not yet lost all critical judgment. 

The Posthumous Romance of Dickens 

Death surprised Dickens on the 8th of July, 1870, 
while he was writing his story The Mystery of Edwin 
Drood, the monthly publication of which was inter- 
rupted at the most critical point. But three years 
later an American journal announced that the dead 
writer was about to finish this novel at Brattleboro, 
Vermont, by means of the hand of a young medium 
named T. P. James, a mechanic without education, 
who had never even read the published section during 
the life of Dickens. The finished work appeared some 
months afterward,^ its posthumous section being 
longer than the other, and presented such a continuity 

* " The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Complete, by Charles Dickens, 
Brattleboro, Vt., published by T. P. James, 1874." Such is the 
title on the first page. It was advertised thus: "Dickens' most 
charming novel — the novel of the season. Price, one dollar!" 

143 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

so well imitating the manner of thought and style and 
even certain peculiarities of orthography that spirit- 
ists the world over did not have the least doubt that 
it was certainly Dickens himself who had returned to 
dictate, word for word, to his medium the end of 
Edwin Drood. Also, this book has remained in their 
eyes *'a unique production in the annals of literature" 
according to the judgment of Aksakof, who quoted 
this story in his collection of cases, ^ giving it as one 
of the most convincing cases on record. Lastly, 
M. Delanne has not hesitated to place it among those 
facts which respond to all the exigencies of the case 
on account of the value of the witnesses as well as by 
reason of the striking demonstration which it affords. 
It is a pity that M. Delanne, ordinarily so prudent and 
so well informed, should appear to ignore the con- 
clusion to which Mme. Fairbanks arrived when she 
undertook, some years ago, to verify this strange his- 
tory, which neither Aksakof nor his successors took 
the trouble to do. I shall permit myself to recall here 
the results of her inquiry.^ 

First of all, those chiefly interested — that is, the 
members of the Dickens family, had knowledge indeed, 



^ Animism and Spiritism, Paris, 1895, pp. 326-332 and, 543. 

2 K. Fairbanks, " Le Cas Spirite de Dickens," Arch, de Psychol., 
T. I., June, 1892, p. 411. Mme. Kama Fairbanks, who was one of 
the most distinguished members of our university . . . was by her 
personal relations as well as her literary aptitudes, as much as her 
impartial curiosity in the problems of supernormal psychology, 
particularly qualified to investigate this particular case. I epito- 
mize the contents of her article. 

144 



I 



"BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

of the story in question, but never took it seriously.^ 
And at Brattleboro, even, where we for long lost trace 
of the medium, T. P. James, there exists a tradition ac- 
cording to which he was only a figurehead, and served 
as a mere amanuensis for a man gifted with great 
literary talent who also lived in this town, and who 
ought to have been the veritable author of the con- 
tinuation of Edwin Drood. There is nothing, however, 
to prove the truth of this tradition, w^hich appears 
suspicious, and might well spring from the tendency 
of the public, ignorant of metapsychic phenomena, to 
explain by the ''probable" things which they do not 
understand. Let us suppose, then, that it may be 
false, and that T. P. James, instead of being a simple 
nom-de- plume, was really a medium for automatic 
writing. Still, it is apparent to me (i) that Dickens 
himself had nothing to do with the affair, and (2) 
that everything is easily explained by processes of 
latent incubation and subconscious imagination in 
the medium himself. I take these points successively. 
I . Many facts hinder us (even admitting spiritism) 
from considering Dickens the author of the second 
part of Edwin Drood. First of all, in his so-called 
"Preface" from beyond the veil we do not find him 
there either as a writer or as a man. The expressions 
and sentiments, childishly vindictive, which are found 

^ This explains how a friend of Dickens, quoted by Dr. Surbled, 
did not hear of this history, and believed that the family of the 
novelist was equally ignorant of it. See Dr. Surbled, Spirits and 
Mediums, Paris, 1901, pp. 154, 155. 

145 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

in the '* address to skeptics," betray, without meaning 
to, the tone of mind of the medium and of his sur- 
roundings. Then, in the novel itself, the copy of the 
style, though remarkable, is not without its faults. 
*'In my opinion," said Mme. Fairbanks, "it is very 
difficult to judge whether this is truly Dickensesque or 
not. There are certainly very successful passages, 
such as the scenes between the two women, Billickin 
and Twinkleton. But there are others which are just 
the contrary. I do not think, e.g., that Dickens would 
have made little Bessie Padler, brought up by a 
woman who could not pronounce a sentence correctly, 
speak as she is made to speak — or, rather, discourse and 
preach as the medium T. P. James did!" Finally, 
and especially, it is known that Forster, the biographer 
of Dickens, discovered among the papers of the latter 
a whole scene in Edwin Drood, written in advance, and 
destined to figure later in the novel. ^ Now, not in 
any part of the volume by the medium has Mme. Fair- 
banks met with more than three new persons whom 
Dickens had not introduced. It is, however, incredi- 
ble that the author, while remembering so clearly the 
part of the volume already published, should have 
completely forgotten the chapter written and left in 
MSS. ; and since his avowed aim in returning to finish 
his work in this mediumistic way was to prove sur- 
vival he would not have failed, as a striking proof of 
identity, either to reproduce this scene — as yet un- 

* J. Forster, The Life of Charles Dickens. This scene is entitled, 
** How Mr. Sapsea ceased to be a member of the Eight Club." 

146 



''BENEFICENT SPIRITS'* 

published — or, if his plan had changed, to at least 
make an illusion to it in reintroducing the same per- 
sonages, or of explaining to his medium why he re- 
nounced it and no longer wished to use it. In short, 
the fact that this fragment from the hand of Dickens, 
refound by Forster, shines by its complete absence in 
the posthumous novel constitutes a strong argument 
against the authenticity of the latter. 

2. There is, on the contrary, nothing opposed to the 
theory that this posthumous part of the novel was elab- 
orated by the medium himself. It may be objected that 
he was incapable of this tour de force. It is true that 
in his Preface he represents himself as an uneducated 
man; but this expression, if taken too literally, would 
be contradicted by the pages composed by himself, 
which are not those of an uncultivated man; i.e., an 
American, even if he is a simple workman, born in 
Boston — a scholarly town par excellence — and who was 
educated until he was thirteen years of age, acquires 
a considerable book knowledge, some literary taste, 
and an idea of writing. As for the assertion that he 
was not cognizant of the first part of Edwin Drood, 
this may be a false report; for, in the work even, as 
well as in the advertisement quotations accumu- 
lated upon the cover of the book, T. P. James does not 
pretend that he has not read Dickens and his last 
novel. Now it is evident that if he had not read 
Dickens he would most probably have boasted of his 
accomplishment, because that would have rendered 
his performance much more extraordinary, and have 
11 147 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

added an enormous weight to his spiritistic hypothesis! 
of the return of Dickens himself. Finally, even if it is 
true, as reported, that T. P. James had never before 
manifested either taste or interest for literature, that 
would not at all exclude the possibility of latent apti- 
tude suddenly awakened by the reading of Edwin 
Drood. We have seen these unexpected blossomings 
of latent talent; let us not forget that the medium 
had two and a half years to imbibe the original work of 
the author, and in letting this "simmer" — without 
counting the six months afterward employed in auto- 
matic writing — three years in all were completed.^ 
We must confess that this greatly reduces its marvel- 
ous character. 

To sum up, this case, so miraculous, of which the 
spiritists have made too much for thirty years with- 
out ever having verified it, returns to them again in 
the most cruel manner without having furnished any 
proof of its truly spiritistic origin. 

What are we to conclude from the various examples 
which have been passed in review? I will not deny 
dogmatically and a priori the possibility of works 
being really composed by spirits — that the autom- 

^ The idea of continuing Edwin Drood only germinated in the sub- 
consciousness of T. P. James after the monthly publication of this 
novel had been interrupted by the death of Dickens, July 8, 1870. 
They tell us, on the other hand (see Aksakof, pp. 327, 328), that 
from the end of October the medium obtained messages from 
Dickens in the course of nine writing seances, and that he finished 
his work between Christmas, 1872, and July, 1873. 

148 



"BENEFICENT SPIRITS" 

atists only transmit such books to us (with or with- 
out the mixture of their own nature). But it seems 
to me prudent before affirming the reaHty of the fact 
to expect that we may at least have some examples 
furnished us which are truly proved to be beyond all 
suspicion — I do not say of voluntary fraud, but simply 
of subconscious incubation which is perfectly natural. 
And, provisionally, I prefer to believe that all the 
manifestations of spirits which reveal themselves 
through a medium are, in the last analysis, but the 
response of the imagination to his secret preoccupa- 
tions and to the desires, sometimes unconfessed, of his 
heart. ^ 

^ It is curious to note that Mr. Andrew Lang, in his The Puzzle 
of Dickens's Last Plot (London, 1905), does not even refer to the 
story as completed by the soi-disant Dickens — through T. P. James. 
In view of Mr. Lang's familiarity with and interest in things psychic, 
this seems a strange omission; but perhaps it was intentional ? — Tr. 



V 
THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

IN the present chapter I purpose to deal with the 
objective value of the so-called proofs of identit] 
which spirits offer to us. Unfortunately my persona^ 
experience has hardly furnished me anything worth] 
of discussion. The most striking cases which I hav( 
encountered were contained in the mediumship oi 
Mile. Smith, and I have shown elsewhere their weak- 
ness.^ Outside of these, all that I have gathered have 
appeared to me to be better explained by the hy- 
pothesis of simple imaginary reconstruction within the 
subconsciousness of the medium due to auto-sugges- 
tion. I will give two or three unpublished specimens 
of these products of subliminal activity which I have 
gathered together; then I shall discuss some of the 
later cases which have appeared in the spiritistic 
press and occupied prominent positions as good 
proofs of identity, though their fallacious character 
appeared to me obvious. Finally, in order not to 
leave the reader under the impression of a too un- 
favorable skepticism, I shall say a few words upon 
certain recent observations which seem to open up 

1 From India to the Planet Mars. 
150 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

new perspectives in these researches without in any 
way lessening the doubts which I yet experience as 
to their proving the more completely the identity of 
spirits. 

I. UNPUBLISHED CASES 

Imitations of AmieVs Journal, Etc. 

Spiritistic literature abounds in posthumous works 
in the true sense of the word ; that is to say, composed 
by certain authors after death ; works which the pub- 
lic, to whom they are addressed, consider authentic, 
but which psychology believes to be simply subliminal 
creations — automatic productions — due to latent in- 
cubation and invention by mediums more or less 
saturated with the works of these authors, or familiar 
with their biographies and their characters. . . . The 
mediumistic fancy does not always content itself with 
imitating the ideas of dead authors, but also elaborates 
and extends them, and perverts, to some extent, these 
ideas, conforming them to those of the medium. It 
must be understood that, enlightened by the added 
revelations of the ''Other Side," many famous per- 
sonages regret their past lives and state that they are 
now converted to spiritism. The finest example of 
mediumistic writing of this character is, probably, 
the posthumous work of Dickens — the completion of 
Edwin Drood. 

I have, however, received one or two communica- 
tions of this character, sent to me by mediums living 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

in the vicinity of Geneva, of which the two following 
are, perhaps, the most interesting: 

March 27, 1892. 

Henri Frederic Amiel: "Mademoiselle, your brother 
who died some years ago has brought me to you with- 
out first having asked your permission. He knows 
that I have wished more than once to enter into com- 
munication with you since you read my Journal, 
because I wish to understand you better." Upon 
which Amiel continued: "You seek, you say, to 
understand better the fragments of my Journal 
Intime which have been published. You will have 
some trouble in doing so. In it you encounter a 
being vague, indefinite, myriad-faced, impression- 
istic. Even I myself do not know how to picture 
myself. Happily, it is this very vagueness which has 
helped me to find myself — myself — which I always 
knew existed, but which always eluded me. I see 
now how feeble was my life; and I think that if I 
had my life to live over again I should know better 
how to utilize the gifts which God had given me. I 
cannot say too strongly to those yet on earth: Act! 
Do not hesitate! One loses time and strength in 
considering for too long a time projects before making 
up one's mind whether or not to attempt them. 
Create energies; teach the will; act, act! It is your 
duty, and you have the necessary strength. . . . We 
hope to see less evil upon the earth, but for that the 
true friends of goodness must prevail. Here I do 

152 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

not lack sincere affections ; I let things go, instead 
of dreading that they will escape me. You see this 
incessant fear which followed me prevented me from 
acquiring anything from the very fear of losing it. 
It was a form of egoism. I was afraid of suffering, 
and I have justly, for that very reason, augmented 
my inward suffering. I leave you! Au revoir." 

Jean Calvin 

It was a short time after these seances that M. 
Denis, the great French apostle of spiritism, came to 
Geneva; and the spiritists naturally hoped much 
from his coming in the way of convincing us skeptics. 
Mile. X received, on this occasion, various mes- 
sages welcoming in advance this great event ; among 
others these: 

October 29, 1892. 

Jean Calvin: *'Yes, it is indeed the reformer of 
Geneva who is here. I have journeyed to see what 
has become of the Huguenot faith among the greater 
part of my citizens. But I see help coming, and I 
abjure you to seize it. It is clericalism which has 
corrupted the masses! It is for spiritism to repair 
the evil! It is not an easy thing, I know, to trans- 
form suddenly the foundations of moral and religious 
life; but it is the duty of every one to consecrate a 
part of his life to these things. ..." 

There is nothing in these communications which 
might not have come quite naturally from the mind 

153 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

of a cultured Genevese lady, energetic and spiritual, 

such as Mile. X . I dare to say, indeed, knowing 

her intelligence, and knowing also the literary and 
philosophical and religious works which she is ca- 
pable of reading, that if she had taken the pains to 
execute consciously a composition upon the theme 
of the actual thoughts of Calvin and Amiel she would 
have expressed these great minds in a language and 
with developments more worthy of them, and of her- 
self, than that which her mediumistic automatisms 
took. The same remark applies, in my estimation, 
to other communications — which she had indeed 

wished to show me. Mile. X is one of those 

cases in which the products of the subconsciousness 
remain in value and quality very much below those 
which are given by the normal personality ; there is a 
distinct deterioration, in fact, in the tone of the 
mediumistic messages. 

The Posthumous Manifestations of Carl Vogt 

The illustrious savant and professor, Carl Vogt, 
died at Geneva on the 5 th day of February, 1895. 
The journey into the other world of this famous co- 
rypheus of materialism could not but inspire some 
spiritistic imaginations. It is Mme. Darel, and in a 
less degree Mme. Saxo (then in the full bloom of their 
mediumship), who had the privilege of serving as 
intermediaries for this illustrious savant half a dozen 
times in the space of about two years. I was not 
present at the first two manifestations, not yet know- 

154 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

ing the mediums; but I had the honor of being 
specially invited to the later sittings. Mme. Darel 
and Mme. Saxo always affirmed that they had never 
seen nor heard of Vogt in their lives. But outside 
of the possibility of lapses of memory (cryptom- 
nesia), which must not be lost sight of in medium- 
istic temperaments, the personality of the celebrated 
professor was too well known in Geneva — too many 
people, his pupils or his occasional hearers, when speak- 
ing of him came irresistibly to imitate his great voice, 
his repartee, as clever as it was jovial, his Homeric 
laugh, unique in all the world — for one easily to ad- 
mit that these two ladies had never heard of his 
peculiarities. As for the remainder of the resemblances 
to the original which adorned their reconstruction of 
the dead, these were more amusing than delicate or true. 
The first manifestation of Vogt took place between 
his death and his burial, at a seance at the home of 

M K , an old pupil and friend of the savant. 

The medium (Mme. Darel) had her hands alone on a 
small table, and the messages came to her mentally 
(in the auditory or verbo-motor fashion) . Unfortu- 
nately, only a verbal and very incomplete record was 
kept of this seance, from which it is impossible to know 
whether the deceased appeared spontaneously or fol- 
lowing an express wish or invocation. But this has 
little importance, for the reason that the death of the 
savant was already well known in Geneva. This is 
what has been preserved of these early communica- 
tions of Vogt : 

155 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

''According to your request, I shall try and examine 
the position in which I find myself. But to define 
it clearly is not yet possible for me. The transition 
has been too abrupt ; my poor brains are in a state of 
stupefaction. Do not accuse them, therefore, of in- 
gratitude." 

"When did you first perceive that you were not in 
the body?" 

"Last night. I awakened at about two o^clock; 
then, subduing what I believed to be a hallucination, 
I saw, stretched upon a bed, my body! The thing 
appeared to me so preposterous that I tried to feel it ; 
and I realized for the first time that I was an impal- 
pable being! What, Vogt, the skeptic, who had be- 
lieved himself to be brain and nerves only! And he 
thinks, he acts, without the instrumentality of these 
latter! To believe in matter so implicitly and to be 
deceived so grossly! My poor head will jump off!" 

"Aside from this astonishment, have you not suf- 
fered?" 

"No! I suffer at having wasted my intelligence, 
passing by truth ! Misfortune; misfortune!" 

' ' Did you find friends there who awaited you ? " 

"My mother and my sister are near to me. Their 
caresses and their joys have reanimated me, for I was 
so absorbed in my reflections, so un-oriented — more 
than that, so unhappy — that it would have been better 
for me to have died completely. ' ' (The communicator 
then finished by expressing his regrets that he had 
championed materialism so consistently, and stated 

156 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

in reply to questions that he had been drawn to the 
medium by a species of magnetic attraction.) 

The second manifestation of Vogt took place some 
months later, in a seance which Mme. Darel gave at the 
house of one of her friends, with Mme. Saxo. I as- 
sisted at the last four seances, which were more or less 
full of drollery. Here are extracts from the detailed 
accounts of these seances: 

At the house of Mme. Darel, with Mme. Saxo. The 
first part of the seance was occupied by two visions of 
Mme. Saxo; then came a third, which she described 
thus: 

*' A tall gentleman, with gray hair, with a round felt 
hat ; he laughs ; he says, ' hin, hin, hin ! ' He says that 
he is Professor Vogt; he seems very jubilant; he is 
cunning and sly ; he places one hand on the shoulder of 
M. Flournoy; he moves the other up and down, turn- 
ing toward Mme. Darel ; he makes us understand that 
he wishes her to place herself at the table and make it 
go. He wishes to speak to her." 

Here the vision ceases, and Mme. Saxo urges Mme. 
Darel to try the table. Mme. Darel grants her request, 
after some urging, for she has an unpleasant memory 
of the violence of the first two manifestations. In- 
deed, scarcely has she seated herself and placed her 
hands on the little table, than this latter is moved 
violently and precipitated in my direction — as though 
asking me to take part in the manifestations — while 
Mme. Darel complains of pains in her forearm, even to 
the shoulder. The furniture, under her hand, comes, 

157 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

by five or six violent jumps, toward me, which obliges 
Mme. Darel to stretch out her arms to their full ex- 
tent. . . . Finally she commences to repeat to us the 
words which Vogt said to her internally, through 
isolated words or little groups of words — always pre- 
ceded by violent movements of the table — very differ- 
ent from its usual rhythmical tapping, and followed by 
a complete sentence. . . . (Mme. Darel then repeated 
the words she mentally heard coming from Professor 
Vogt.) 

"What are you doing with the learned faculty — 
cutting out bibs for them ? If you like, we will begin 
with a course in anatomy. . . . Commence with me — 
my brain, my kidneys, my muscles! . . . oh, not much. 
. . . This is a new Vogt. Which side will you dissect 
first?" 

Mme. Saxo here stated that the table was being 
moved about in such a way that she was becoming 
fatigued, and asked if it might not be modified a little. 
He replied: 

'*I would do anything to please you, madam." 

Immediately the table rapped more gently, upon 
which it continued: ''Is it not perfect? The bear is 
growing tame. The tide rises . . . the tide rises; 
do you know why the equinoctial tide? ..." (Here 
was a pause so prolonged that we decide, on account 
of the lateness of the hour, to conclude — asking him 
if he would consent to retire for the evening and to 
return at the next seance, and tell us his impressions 
as to his new conditions.) He replied immediately: 

158 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

"Good Lord! That is all that I ask. Au revoirT* 

His departure was manifested by a curious move- 
ment of the table, turning itself on to its side by 
several jumps, as though to separate itself from us 
completely. 

January 24. Since the last time, Mme. Darel gave 

one seance at the house of M K , where Vogt 

came at first ; but he said nothing of consequence, and 
almost immediately gave up his place to another 
''spirit." From the beginning of this s6ance Mme. 
Darel expressed the fear that Vogt would not return. 
. . . This was realized. Soon she said, " I am sure it is 
he " — complaining of a painful pressure upon her fore- 
arms, which rapidly increased, as if some one had 
seized them forcibly and tried to restrain her. The 
table began also to tremble with violence. As the 
medium appeared to suffer from it, I stated that I 
thought "Vogt" had better go away — as we would stop 
the seance rather than allow her to be so tormented ; 
to which she heard Vogt reply in anger : '' You are still 
droll ! Why did you tell me to return ? Why ? Go 
on, explain yourself!" But the suggestion of his 
departure operating, he did not persist further in 
staying ; as at the last seance, the table made a series 
of jumps, and the control gave place to another dis- 
carnate, with slower and more gentle movements. 

[At the later manifestations of Vogt he replied in 
much the same strain, keeping up, generally, a fund of 
humor and some roughness in his manner and a 
strain of coarseness in his jokes. At the sixth seance 

159 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

he was replaced by another, and did not return 

again. — Tr.] 

I feel that I must apologize for giving this case so 

much in detail, but it will at least serve to illustrate 

the type of communications which I received from 

Professor Vogt, and which, considering that I did not 

know him very well — although we were near neighbors 

in the laboratory — can hardly be called a propos . There 

is, at all events, nothing, in these communications, so 

far as I can see, which would in any way warrant us 

in supposing that the illustrious Professor himself was 

there in person. 

Other Examples 

There was hardly a well-known man living in Geneva 
who did not manifest to me, at one time or another, 
through some medium ; but in every case I have found 
that the manifestations invariably corresponded to 
the medium's idea of the deceased person, and not with 
my ideas of him. It was thus with the noted physiolo- 
gist Schiff , who, when I saw him in his laboratory, was 
always original, piquant, and full of philosophical 
ideas of great value; but in his communications 
through Mme. Darel he spoke the same balderdash 
as Professor Vogt. A deceased counselor of state, with 
whom I had had personal business dealings on differ- 
ent occasions, and who belonged to a group of well- 
known and regular absinth-drinkers, could give me no 
other proof of his identity through the pencil of Mme. 
Saxo than the drawing of a clock marking ten minutes 
to twelve, with these words in large capitals, ' ' Let us 

1 60 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

have one!" — a sign which every one of us assuredly 
recognized at once! Another political man, the late 
M. Dufour, with whom I had never had relations, and 
whom I did not even know by sight, saluted me like an 
old acquaintance. Prof. Aug. Bouvier spoke to me 
simple banalities — not even recalling our past con- 
versations, etc. 

In short, I do not find anything in my whole experi- 
ence which could be even remotely compared with the 
astounding communications in which the sitters in 
the Piper case recognized the characteristics of their 
relatives or friends whom they had lost.^ 

But if I had obtained such messages presenting all 
the appearances of authenticity I should still hesitate 
to conclude in favor of their authenticity. At the 
same time the question would at least be raised as to 
the identity of my correspondents. But even this is 
not necessitated by the messages which I received, for 
in them I can see only the subliminal romances of the 
various mediums with whom I have obtained sittings. 

2. SOME RECENT CASES IN SPIRITISTIC LITEJRATURE 

If I have never obtained authentic messages this 
does not prove, it is true, that they never occur. My 

^ After many years of patient research, Dr. Hodgson came to the 
conclusion that, as he expressed it, "there is only one medium — 
Mrs. Piper." Assuredly she was head and shoulders above all 
others. I myself have been forced to very much the same con- 
clusion with regard to Eusapia Palladino. In spite of all the ac- 
counts of other mediums which I have heard in the past, not one 
of them has upon investigation even remotely resembled the 
marvelous manifestations which are seen in her presence. — Tr. 

i6i 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

want of success may be due to simple chance or to the 
fact that my temperament is antipathetic to true 
spirits, so that my presence might prevent their com- 
munications. 

But, unfortunately, when we look through the litera- 
ture of spiritism we are often surprised at the easy 
manner in which communications are received as 
authentic (for example, Aksakof, with the case of 
Dickens!) by many spiritists. This is regrettable, for 
it has the effect of causing savants to refuse to examine 
other cases, stronger evidentially, which are certainly 
well worthy of serious investigation. I give one or 
two recent cases of the usual type by way of example. 

The Nancy Cases 

Under the title of "Proofs of the Identity of Per- 
sonality" the Revue of M. Delanne has recently pub- 
lished a series of typtological communications ob- 
tained by a group of sitters at Nancy, and remarkable 
for their precision and exactitude. The anonymous 
author of this work, and M. Delanne himself, do not 
doubt the identity of the discarnate who are thus 
revealed at their seances. Indeed, ever since Bertolf 
de Ghistelles (a Flemish lord of the eleventh century, 
who killed his wife, St. Godelive of Bruges,* and 
became a monk to expiate his crime) all the returning 
spirits, even to the obscure individuals of our time, 
have taken good care to give indications of theic 



* See Larousse, " Godelive." 
162 






THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

earthly career which could be ascertained from dic- 
tionaries and biographies.^ 

For psychology this collection of veridical cases 
furnishes a magnificent collection illustrating the 
phenomena of cryptomnesia (the good faith of the 
medium being granted). The narrator himself has 
foreseen this impression. ''It will be said to me," re- 
marked he, after the case of Bertolf, ''that one of the 
persons present had already read this history in part 
and has it in his mind; then, by unconscious pressure, 
has directed the movements of this table and re- 
sponded to the questions without knowledge of having 
done so. But," he objected immediately, "for this 
to be possible it would be necessary for one of the 
sitters to be in a state of somnambulism, which was not 
the case; and, further, none of the sitters had ever 
opened Larousse, myself excepted, and I am certain 
that I had not read these biographical notices before." 

These objections to the hypothesis of latent memory 
are typical; they are those to which appeal is always 
made in the groups of mediumistic experimenters, and 

• 

^ While this may be true in many cases, it is certainly not true in 
all. In the Piper case, e.g., it has sometimes taken months and 
months of constant investigation and hundreds of letters to 
verify the statements made through this medium. But historical 
personalities seem much less prone to manifest in this country 
than in Europe, apparently. All intelligent psychical researchers 
are certainly keenly alive to all these defects in the evidence and 
possible normal explanations — just as much so as the savants. 
Indeed, the psychical researchers are, as a matter of fact, the very 
ones who have pointed out nearly all the objections to and difficul- 
ties within spiritism which have been raised in the past. — Tr. 

12 163 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

will show what ignorance is often exhibited in spirit-] 
istic circles of the phenomena of the subconscious] 
mind and of dissociation. When will we succeed ii 
inculcating in the minds of the spiritistic public, oi 
at least the editors of their periodicals, these two] 
elementary truths? 

1 . That we can never have a certainty of not having 
stored up subconsciously, while turning over the pages] 
of a dictionary, a mass of information other than that 
which we are expressly seeking, and that not one of uj 
knows what he has absorbed in the course of his life 
by sight and hearing without knowing it. 

2 . That it is not at all necessary for a person taking 
part in a spiritistic seance to be in a state of somnam- 
bulism for the contents of his memory or his latent 
thoughts to be translated into imperceptible trem- 
blings in his hands, or other phenomena of unconscious 
expression. 

But let us ask whether even placing ourselves in the 
position of the spiritist we are entitled to believe, in 
such a case, in the personal presence of Bertolf de 
Ghistelles rather than in a clever and a unique 
individuality playing successively all these various 
roles. I see none, since, according to the spiritists 
themselves, the spirit world is full of deceiving spirits, 
capable of simulating to perfection the personality of 
others, and of acting and speaking as if they were 
those people. And the most simple supposition is 
that behind all these pretended discarnate spirits, 
which have no other common trait than that of giving 

164 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

information easily verifiable, there is One, and only 
one, deceiving spirit, which deceives probably with the 
excellent intention of giving to this group of people 
convincing proofs of survival. ... As to who is the 
author of this pious fraud, that is another question; 
but, before seeking in the Beyond, according to the 
spiritistic custom, it must be proved, first of all, that 
it is not simply a sub-personality of the medium 
himself. 

I add that on a purely psychological hypothesis 
the great words trickery and fraud have no longer any 
right to be employed, since the simulation is not con- 
scious, and only the credulous accept these mani- 
festations as coming from *' spirits." Everything 
forces us to admit that the mind of the medium pro- 
ducing these messages is in a state of infantile regres- 
sion, which cannot be compared to the cunning skill 
of a great impostor, but rather to the candor and sim- 
plicity of children who amuse themselves. 

Just as our own children, when they play at be- 
ing merchants or thieves, enter into it with all their 
hearts and all the resources of their imagination — but 
they do not, for all that, expect to be treated as real 
thieves or as real merchants by the "grown-ups" — so 
the subconsciousness of the medium (to whom cir- 
cumstances and surroundings suggest playing at 
"spirits") sets its wits to work to collect within the 
depths of its latent memory or in the marginal 
regions of consciousness all that which will permit 
it to fabricate these amazing veridical messages. 

165 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



II 



But this does not say that the subconsciousness itself 
believes in its own authenticity or wishes to make the 
sitters believe in it. We must not confound the 
dualism of the fictitious self and the real self in the 
actor (or the young child pretending to be some one 
else) with the duplicity of the forger who seeks to 
pass himself off as some other person. It is the 
first of these explanations which I would favor in 
considering these spiritistic messages. | 

To conclude the cases of Nancy. What their pub- 
lication evidences the best is, to my mind, the astonish- 
ing incapacity to understand where lies the true heart 
of the problem displayed by the reporters. For what 
guarantee does the narrator give us of the authenticity 
of these revelations? It is, he tells us, that in in- 
terviewing spirits by means of tables and writing we 
have obtained surprising results which, nineteen 
times out of twenty, have been verified. Verified in 
what fashion? The exact information relative to 
Bertolf de Ghistelles has been verified by means of 
archives and dictionaries. As if that were the im- 
portant question! What concerns us above all is 
that the information given should not have been seen 
in a normal manner by the medium or the sitters. 
That, naturally, the witnesses have not any control of 
and cannot verify. I do not reproach them for not 
having accomplished the impossible; but we should 
not throw powder in the eyes of the reader by stating 
that we have *' verified '* the messages when there has 
been no "verifying" at all as to the essential point. 

i66 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS' 

The Case of Hasdeu 

The great Roumanian writer Hasdeu was fifty- 
three years of age when, one evening in March, 1889, 
as he was day-dreaming at his work-table, his hand 
automatically traced the following message, in the 
writing and above the signature of his only daughter, 
dead some six months: *'I am happy; I love you; 
we shall see each other again ; that should be enough 
for you now. Julie Hasdeu." 

This communication, which was followed by mes- 
sages almost daily from the deceased to her father, 
made Hasdeu a convinced spiritist. To speak truly, 
he had always been one in reality, according to his 
own later declarations. But this finally convinced 
him. 

[The detailed history of this case is then given. 
Hasdeu' s father had been a distinguished linguist, 
and had in mind a standard dictionary of the Rou- 
manian language; but unfortunately he died pre- 
maturely. His son was a historian; but when half 
through his History of the Roumanian People his de- 
sire to finish this work suddenly left him, and he 
plunged into the compilation of a vast dictionary, 
which he naturally thought was prompted by the 
spirit of his father. He felt that he was forced to do 
so. Professor Flournoy analyzes this case, and 
comes to the conclusion that it may readily be ex- 
plained by known psychological processes. The most 
striking incident was, however, the following: While 

167 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

attending one seance, the medium, who spoke not a 
word of Russian, passed into trance and wrote several 
Russian sentences signed by the father. These urged 
him to complete his great works which he had lately- 
thought of giving up. Coming through another source 
than his own hands, this naturally appeared very con- 
vincing to M. Hasdeu. And, indeed, it evidently 
appeared very remarkable to Professor Flournoy, for 
he writes concerning it as follows:] 

We know very well that a good medium is able to 
mirror the thoughts, conscious and subliminal, of the 
sitters, acting as a sort of channel of expression for 
them; and if we are astonished that this mental 
transmission enables a medium in trance to write a 
language unknown to him (which is always subject 
to doubt because of the possibilities of cryptomnesia) 
the same difficulty presents itself on the spiritistic 
hypothesis; for the invasion or subjugation of the 
organism of a medium by a psychic complex belonging 
to a strange individual is not more easy to explain 
if that individuality be a spirit of the dead than if it 
is or belongs to one of the sitters in flesh and blood. 
And in this equally difficult question there is no rea- 
son to attribute to the discarnate or to the spirit 
world phenomena which can as readily be explained 
by the phenomena of our empirical world. 

The Manifestations of Hodgson Through Mrs. Piper 

The case of Mrs. Piper is not new; it has given 
birth to a considerable mass of literature during the 

i6S 




DR. RICHARD HODGSON 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

latter quarter of a century. The posthumous mani- 
festations of Hodgson are among those which most 
vitally interest us at the present time. It is well 
known that this excellent observer had for a number of 
years especially devoted himself to a study of this 
famous medium of Boston, whose phenomena had 
converted him to spiritism. He had made a special 
study of this case, and became absolutely familiar 
with the nature of her trance and the complications, 
or difficulties, which seemed to oppose the clear sending 
of messages from the discarnate. Also, he had often 
said that if he died first he would be enabled to com- 
municate through this medium better than any of 
those who had gone before, knowing her and the 
necessary conditions of communicating so well. 

This did not fail to happen. Hodgson having sud- 
denly died in his full mental and physical vigor (De- 
cember 20, 1905), eight days had scarcely elapsed 
before he commenced to return in the trances of Mrs. 
Piper; and he has not ceased from that time to pre- 
sent himself at a large number of her seances in a 
manner perfectly recognizable to those who knew 
him well. But is it really he, or could this be a 
fabricated personification — created by the subcon- 
sciousness of Mrs. Piper, who certainly had all the 
time possible to imbibe the character of Hodgson dur- 
ing the long years of their work together? Cruel 
enigma! In the hope of solving it, the detailed rec- 
ords of these seances from his death until the ist of 
January, 1908, were handed over to Prof. William 

169 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



4 



James, probably better qualified than any one else 
to appreciate them. For he knew equally well the 
medium, whom he discovered and first investigated, 
and the deceased, who was one of his intimate friends. 

I do not know w^hether the spiritists are very satis- 
fied with the conclusions of this illustrious psycholo- 
gist, whose name they constantly quote, perhaps 
too freely, among their authorities of note. Th 
report of Professor James, indeed, recognizes clearl 
that if one already admits the reality of interven- 
tion from the other side (basing this belief upon the 
multitude of supernormal phenomena with which 
the history of humanity is completely filled) nothing 
hinders one from believing also the communications 
of Hodgson as coming from him — not forgetting that 
the organism of Mrs. Piper has much trouble in trans- 
mitting the messages from spirits, mixing with them 
her own automatic tendencies in a most perplexing 
manner. But Professor James insists equally upon 
the fact that, considered in themselves, the messages 
of the so-called Hodgson do not furnish any -decisive 
proof whatever as to their authenticity. . . .^ 

The ''Note" contributed by Mrs. Sidgwick and Mr. 

^ This is not strictly accurate . In his Report (Proceedings, S. P. R. , 
vol. xxiii, pp. I20, i2i) James says: "/ myself feel as if an exter-\ 
nal will to communicate were probably there; that is, I find myself] 
doubting . . , that Mrs. Piper's dream-life, even equipped with 
'telepathic' powers, accounts for all the results found. But if] 
asked whether the will to communicate be Hodgson's or somej 
mere spirit-counterfeit of Hodgson, I remain uncertain and await 
more facts — facts which may not point clearly to a conclusion for] 
fifty or a hundred years." — Tr. 

170 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

Piddington upon the attempts made during the visit 
of Mrs. Piper to London to see whether the so-called 
Hodgson would manifest himself through her and re- 
member the friends whom he had known in England, 
was still less favorable, these attempts only having 
given a negative result. And the personal observa- 
tions of Sir Oliver Lodge, who is a convinced spirit- 
ist, did not prove to him the authenticity of the 
messages from Hodgson through Mrs. Piper. 

To sum up, one sees that this case, from w^hich one 
might have expected much toward the solution of the 
spiritistic problem, since it meant the combination of 
an unusually powerful medium with a deceased person 
of unequaled competence who had decided to mani- 
fest himself, if that were possible, has not advanced 
the question a step. We must await in patience, says 
Professor James, the advent of more facts, facts which 
may necessitate a century or more of study, before we 
can begin to think that we see clearly. 

Other Cases 

The spiritistic publications — books and reviews — 
have increased so rapidly in later years that it is ver^^" 
difficult to keep one's self an courant with the move- 
ment when one has other business to attend to. I 
recognize humbly my inability to deal adequately 
with the vast literature accumulated dealing with 
this and other cases. But I will mention a few. 

Professor Falcomer, one of the most distinguished 
propagandists of Italian spiritism, has pointed out a 

171 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

case to me which he studied very carefully — neg- 
lecting no possible means of verification. It is that of 
his son, G. Capsoni, a provincial deputy, who died 
October 25, 1903, and who has since furnished many 
curious manifestations. During his last illness, even, 
and at the moment of his death, he tried to communi- 
cate from a distance with M. Falcomer, and appeared 
to have succeeded, in the sense that the latter experi- 
enced strange phenomena, auditory and visual (raps, 
apparitions, etc.), which coincided with events yet 
unknown to him. Of course this does not prove sur- 
vival, but only a telepathic action on the part of the 
moribund person. But there is more. From the end 
of January, 1904 — about three months after the death 
of Capsoni — a Roman family who practised table- 
tipping had one day a message from a spirit absolutely 
unknown to them, which declared itself to be Capsoni, 
and gave various proofs of identity, which were veri- 
fied — among others the names and the addresses of his 
widow, then of one of his friends, etc. M. Falcomer re- 
lated to me a series of his later communications through 
the table and by means of direct writing, etc. This 
was obtained in verse, and in it were found many of 
his characteristics and his ideas. The weak point of 
this case is, naturally, the impossibility of proving that 
the members of the family where Capsoni made his first 
appearance had no idea of his existence. There is not 
the slightest doubt as to their good faith ; but doubt- 
less one or another of them had a tendency, more or 
less developed, to produce subconscious phenomena. 

172 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

How, then, prove that during the three months' interval 
between the death of Capsoni and his return in spirit 
his subconsciousness had not had the opportunity of 
acquiring information about the provincial deputy, 
either by hearing (conversations, etc.) or by sight 
(obituary notices, necrologies, etc.) ? It is always the 
same specter of cryptomnesia which confronts us, 
menacing even the most beautiful cases, and one which 
we do not know how to banish ! ^ 

In America Professor Hyslop has devoted himself 
entirely to the study of psychical phenomena, and 
displays great activity. The Proceedings and the 

^ It is easy to charge cryptomnesia, often difficult to prove it. 
Professor Flournoy gives a chapter in his book to a recital and 
analysis of several cases of this character — ^which have such a vital 
bearing upon mediumistic messages — apparently coming from the 
discarnate. He mentions the case of Helen Keller, who, when 
eleven years of age, composed an essay which was almost exactly 
similar to one read to her some years before; that of Nietsche, 
whose Zarathustra includes details contained in a work of Kerner 
which the philosopher had read at the age of twelve, etc. He also 
analyzes the case of Stainton Moses, and shows that many of his 
test messages (which are included in his book Spirit Identity, and 
which Mr. Podmore in his Studies in Psychical Research had 
tried to show were normally acquired) were doubtless the result of 
cryptomnesia. The facts had been subconsciously obtained by Mr. 
Moses, and given by him in trance during a later seance. There 
is no reason to attribute fraud in such a case, as was thought 
necessary some years ago, before the facts were so well under- 
stood. Other cases, such as that of Mr. Hanna (in Multiple 
Personality), are also discussed, together with some facts in the 
case of Mile. Smith. These undoubted cases of cryptomnesia are 
of great value, showing that one is justified in postulating it and 
employing it as a "working hypothesis" in other cases of a like 
character which have a definitely spiritistic import and appear- 
ance. — Tr. 

173 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

Journals of the American Society for Psychical Re- 
search (founded in 1907), which appear under his 
direction, constitute a rich mine of material, where one 
may find serious evidence of spirit identity; but the 
selection from these cases of what is evidential and 
what is not is very difficult, and I am not equal to it. 
Nobody should be more competent than Professor 
Hyslop himself, who is at the same time, if I am not 
deceived, a convinced spiritist and a professional 
logician, to extract from this half-dozen thick vol- 
umes those cases which are most convincing in this 
respect. 

It may be that the special ''Bureau of Correspon- 
dence" with the other world which Mr. Stead has 
opened — his famous "Julia's Bureau" — may be an 
assured source of spirit communications, but we need 
more information as to the results of his activities. 

3. RECENT CROSS-CORRESPONDENCE TESTS 

Instead of a negative preconception, as indefensible 
as the positive parti pris of the spiritists, we should 
always leave the door open for the admission of new 
facts, or of new methods, capable of establishing the 
reality of the intervention of the discarnate in our 
universe, and their veritable identity. . . . And an 
innate skepticism must not prevent me from examin- 
ing these cases in detail, and with an impartial mind. 

Most important and most fertile appears to me the 
innovation which has been introduced during the last 
few years by the following facts, whose discovery we 

174 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

owe to Miss Alice Johnson, the indefatigable secretary 
of the Society for Psychical Research. In studying 
the various scripts obtained from several automatic 
writers — Mrs. Holland, Mrs. Verrall, Mrs. Piper, etc. — 
she was struck by finding in them points of simi- 
larity consisting of veiled resemblances or enigmati- 
cal phrases, more or less incomprehensible taken singly, 
but which, when placed together, became clear, and 
mutually completed one another, like the fragments of 
a mosaic or the ramifications of one fundamental 
theme. This singular phenomenon of ''cross-corre- 
spondence," or of complementary messages, furnished 
through these different mediums, appeared to Miss 
Johnson to be a good indication of the action of discar- 
nate intelligences, independent of these various me- 
diums, who endeavored by this means to prove their 
veritable existence. Indeed, the features of resem- 
blance in the scripts — received almost simultaneously 
by subjects often separated from one another by a 
great distance — can not be explained either by pure 
coincidence or by colluvsion or by general influences 
of education, environment, etc. The hypothesis of a 
telepathic interaction seems equally excluded by the 
fact that the common thought did not express itself in 
identical terms (which might have passed from one 
medium to another) , but in a mere general similarity, 
differently expressed by the different mediums. 

This reason in itself is not, however, absolutely 
opposed to the telepathic theory, for the caprice shown 
by the phenomena of the association of ideas would 

175 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

suffice to explain the fact that the same idea or 
impression in passing from one individual to another 
does not, in fact, burst forth full-blown and complete, 
but might simply awaken comparisons — association 
of ideas through contiguity or through resemblance 
which we might take for wilful disguise, when, as a 
matter of fact, it is the simple result of the operation 
of the psycho-physiological mechanism. Phenomena 
of this character abound not only in normal but also in 
abnormal psychology. For example, a word spoken 
in the ear of a sleeper, or an impression, either olfac- 
tory or tactile, which he receives, instead of passing 
over the threshold of his dream would remain below 
it, and there would create corresponding images or 
memories. And, in the observations on telepathy, 
both spontaneous and experimental, it often happens 
that the initial conscious representation of the agent 
is expressed in the percipient in equivalents often very 
different^ without our knowing which of the two sub- 
consciousnesses is responsible for the translation 
which takes place. 

But there are in these cross-correspondence tests 
other features which seem to exclude this explanation 

* In a recent article upon complementary messages Professor 
Pigou insists, with reason, upon this point, recalling an excellent 
example: When the experiments in thought-transference at a 
distance between Miss Miles and Miss Ramsden took place, the 
latter tried to transmit the image of a Sphinx : it was externalized 
in the percipient as " Luxor in Egypt." (Proceedings, S. P. R., 
vol, xxi, p. 62; Proceedings, vol. xxiii, p. 295, and the reply to 
Professor Pigou by the Right Hon. Gerald Balfour, Proceedings, 
S. P. R., vol. XXV., pp. 28-56.) 

176 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

by simple telepathy and the passive role of the asso- 
ciation of ideas; this is their clearly intentional char- 
acter. They (the cross-correspondences) are often 
accompanied by phrases which indicate the work of a 
mind or W\\\ — the effort of an intelligence which has in 
view the method of guesswork or riddles, and which 
urges the readers to seek within the scripts for the key. 
Here is an example which I choose on account of its 
brevity, and which I abridge : 

On April ii, 1906, Mrs. Holland, in one of her auto- 
matic communications, wrote the words * 'Eheu fugaces' ' 
(which is the beginning of an ode of Horace) . Now, 
it was found that half an hour before, in another 
place in England, Mrs. Verrall had received, also 
through automatic writing, a series of poetical quota- 
tions expressing the same idea of flight, and followed 
by this phrase: ''That has been revealed. There is 
an effort to have the same words this time." This 
warning seems, indeed, to indicate that the similarity 
of the idea contained in the very dissimilar texts of 
these two automatic writers is the result of a prede- 
termined design. . . . The following example is clearer 
still: 

On April 8, 1907, in London, Mrs. Piper pronounced 
in trance the words "Light in West." The same day, 
three hours later, Mrs. Verrall, in Cambridge, wrote 
automatically a message containing these words: 
"Rosy is the East, and so on. You will find that you 
have written a message for Mr. Piddington which you 
did not understand, but he did. Tell him that." 

177 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

And the same day, a little later, Mrs. Holland, then 
in Calcutta, received through her pencil a communica- 
tion in which the question was asked : 

"Do you remember that exquisite sky when the 
afterglow made the East as beautiful and as richly 
colored as the West — Martha became as Mary, and 
Leah as Rachel — " 

We have, indeed, the impression that this third 
message — expressing the union of opposite extremes — 
has in view the first two, which it includes by synthe- 
sis; and the second marks in the clearest possible 
manner the intentional character of this kind of 
mediumistic rebus. I add that in reducing this case 
to the above skeleton, in order to simplify it, I have 
greatly reduced its value and convincing character — 
viz., by omitting all the ramifications coexistent in the 
many other automatisms of Mrs. Holland, Mrs. Piper, 
and Mrs. Verrall, in the spring of 1907, and which 
make of the messages of these three mediums a singu- 
lar tissue of common thoughts, reciprocal allusions, 
subtle interlacings, of which the disentanglement — 
a marvel of analysis — occupies no less than four hun- 
dred pages in the Report of Mr. Piddington. 

When we consider in their ensemble all these cases 
of complementary messages published by Miss Johnson 
and Mr. Piddington, we cannot deny the fact that we 
are in the presence of a new and original method, 
deliberately adopted by some superior intelligence in; 
order to prove its existence independent of the medium| 
which it employs. This intelligence, as a matter o 

178 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

fact, has not preserved its incognito — it has never 
ceased to declare itself to be Myers, supported by 
other "spirits, " especially his old friends and collabora- 
ieurs, who are with him in the other world — Hodgson, 
Sidgwick, and Gurney. How, then, can we still doubt 
that these pioneers of metapsychics, too soon cut off 
from their earthly careers — have preserved beyond 
the tomb their sense of scientific evidence, their 
character, their unshakable will, and that they con- 
tinue, according to their promises, to work with all 
their energy and their genius, to pierce the wall which 
separates us from them ? It seems incontestable that 
the ''Myers*' who haunts the trances of Mrs. Piper is 
indeed the same "Myers" who inspires the pencil of 
Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Holland — for each of these three 
''Myers" knows, more or less, what the others say 
or do ; and further, the cast of their minds, the liter- 
ary erudition, the intimate knowledge which they 
display of the work of the late Frederic Myers, the 
founder of subliminal psychology, obliges us to iden- 
tify them with this latter. 

But the demon of doubt again makes its appearance. 
What if the "Myers" who returned to manifest him- 
self through several mediums was not Myers, but only 
a collective product of their subconsciousnesses, or, 
more simply still, the special creation of one of them ? 
We know to what degree of apparent independence, 
of concrete personalization, these somnambulistic 
fantasies sometimes attain. And we know, also, that 
all mediunis engaged on the cross-correspondencq 

13 179 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



I 



tests knew Myers more or less when living, or were 
familiar with his works May we suppose that the 
regret of his loss, the indelible memory of his striking 
character, the knowledge of his doctrines and his in- 
tentions, the expectation of his possible manifesta- 
tions, constituted an almost necessary subconscious 
desire to become an intermediary for such a man? 
In short, owing to their familiarity with Myers and 
his writings, and owing, further, to the subconscious 
dramatization to which I have so often called atten- 
tion, might we not suppose that in each one of these 
psychics there arose a personification of Myers more 
or less perfect? These personifications, numerically 
different, but of a great intellectual and emotional 
similarity (since they are always inspired by the same 
ideas, thoughts, and tendencies, being copied from 
the same model), might they not be constructed in 
the different mediums in whom they spring into 
being along similar lines, and all liable to mutual 
telepathic influence? And who knows whether one 
of these ladies, more trained than the others in science, 
and possessing a turn of mind somewhat resembling 
that of Myers, might not subconsciously imitate his 
bent of mind, even to elaborating and carrying out 
this plan of cross-correspondences, the first germs of 
which are certainly to be found in the great work of 
this author. And the one which more nearly ap- 
proximates the true Myers may dominate the others 
— in their mutual telepathic relations — and fashion 
them more completely in its image, bending them to 

1 80 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

conform to its ideas and usages, and dictating to them 
the role they must play. . . . 

As my book was passing through the press I en- 
countered, in two recent works, certain considerations 
which support this view of the case, and which seem 
to me to indicate that it is particularly the subcon- 
sciousness of Mrs. Verrall which must be given the 
credit for inventing the cross-correspondences and 
of having given birth to the pseudo-Myers. 

We have, first, the following remarks by M. Marcel 
Mangin, who asks, ' ' Which is the brain in which are 
elaborated the cross-correspondences?" and who re- 
plies : " It is certainly the brain of a person extremely 
erudite and literary. And it is infinitely probable 
that it is, if not always, at least the greater part of 
the time, that of the distinguished professor of Newn- 
ham College, Mrs. Verrall, author of several works 
on Latin and Greek, keenly interested in psychic 
studies, and a great admirer of Myers. Here are two 
minds whose erudition in classical literature, and 
whose common taste for metapsychics, places them, 
so to say, in the same class. And it is probable that, 
in reading the works of Myers, particularly Human 
Personality, Mrs. Verrall was, in consequence, pro- 
foundly influenced by them. She shared the faith of 
the former, and when he died, January, 1901, she 
could certainly see in this event only a separation. 
The desire to communicate with him haunts her. A 
certain time, however, was necessary for the sub- 
liminal work to be accomplished. It was May 8th 

181 



l! 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

before her mediumship was sufficiently developed for 
the communications to commence." 

In the second place, the following point has been^ 
brought out by Professor Pigou. Doctor Verrall, the 
(living) husband of Mrs. Verrall, had, as an experi- 
ment, attempted to transmit to her, mentally, a Greek 
quotation with which were associated memories of 
childhood unknown to her. The result was an ap- 
pearance, in the automatic writings of Mrs. Verrall, 
during the following months, of various fragments 
which were related to this suggestion. Now, Pro- 
fessor Pigou shows that, in comparing the ensemble 
of the fragments in the cross-correspondences ob- 
tained through different mediums (in those cases 
where they had proposed a similar sentence to Myers, 
to see what he would say of it), there was found no 
difference in form, in style, in general charm, between 
the first group, due to the suggestion of a living 
agent, and the second group, so called, due to the 
intervention of the discarnate. Professor Pigou con- 
cluded from this that all the cross-correspondences of 
the pretended "Myers" might be due to living agents; 
to which one might add that their origin will be found, 
most probably, in Mrs. Verrall, since all these messages 
seem to present the signs of her influence.* 

* See, however, the Rt. Hon. Gerald Balfour's reply to this 
position of Professor Pigou (Proceedings, S. P. R., vol. xxv, pp. 
42-48 especially), which deals with this test of Doctor Verrall's. 
He there shows us that his theory can only be sustained if we deal 
ambiguously with the "intentional factor" of these scripts. It 
would take too long to summarize the argument here; it should be 
read in the original. — Tk. 

182 



I 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

Theory all this, truly; but a theory which has in its 
favor many analogous facts in psychopathology ; and 
we cannot say that it is destitute of all foundation. 
We must remember that opposed to it is the spiritistic 
hypothesis which grants the real identity of "Myers" 
and his associates. But I recognize fully that it 
would be ridiculous to pretend to decide so early 
upon a question so complex. . . . The problem is still 
enveloped in too many obscurities. 

In any case, whether it be the reflected thoughts 
of discarnate spirits or an ingenious amusement of 
subliminal imaginations still incarnated, the cross- 
correspondences present a very interesting prob- 
lem, which will always serve as the basis for still 
other and perhaps more ingenious methods by which 
the discarnate may endeavor to prove to us their 
identity. 

CONCLUSION 

What stands out more clearly than anything else in 
the preceding argument concerning the authenticity 
of the mediumistic messages and the true identity 
of their senders is the startling contrast which exists 
upon this point between the judgment of savants 
who are familiar with the question and the current 
opinion of the ordinary spiritistic circles. 

For these latter nothing is more easy or more com- 
mon than to converse with the departed. It is 
sufficient for a medium to obtain responses through 
a table or by means of a pencil, and, setting aside 
the risk of meeting with deceiving spirits (for there 

183 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

are dishonest people in the other world as there are 
here, we are told), there is no reason to doubt that 
the usual communications proceed from the source 
from which they purport to proceed. For the special- 
ists of the Society for Psychical Research, on the 
contrary — even if they are spiritistic in conviction, 
like Hodgson or Hyslop — nothing is more rare than 
to find a true medium, and more difficult than to dis- 
tinguish the authentic from what is not in their 
messages. For the best mediums constantly mix 
their dreams and their subliminal reveries with what 
comes to them from the Beyond, without speaking 
of perturbations due to the influence of the living; 
and with the discarnate themselves it seems that 
there are such difficulties to overcome in order to 
communicate with us that we can never be sure 
of the verbal correctness of any of the messages re- 
ceived. 

Hodgson compared the communication which he 
held with the deceased through the channel of the 
medium (Mrs. Piper) to the conversations which 
might take place in this world between two persons 
widely separated from each other who are compelled 
to exchange their messages by means of two messen- 
gers, both of them drunk. [The drunken persons on 
this analogy would be the medium on this side and 
the intermediary on the other, both presumably in a 
trance-like condition. — Tr.] And Mr. Graham, con- 
vinced that it is indeed Myers who is revealed in these 
messages of which I have just spoken, declares, 

184 



I 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

nevertheless, that to attempt to obtain a reply is 
equivalent almost to "writing a letter in the darkness 
and giving it to a messenger who is half asleep to 
carry across an unknown country bristling with 
obstacles ... to an address which is temporary and 
changing, and carry back replies dictated to an 
illiterate secretary who does not always understand 
what he writes."^ We can see from this, then, that it 
would be truly marvelous if the correspondence had 
any resemblance under such conditions. But if this 
be so in the case of the most powerful medium of our 
generation, and of a deceased person who had given 
his life to the solution of this problem and had re- 
solved to do everything possible after his death to 
manifest himself to us, what ought it to be in ordinary 
cases ? and how completely duped are those mediums, 
professional and amateurs, who imagine that they are 
the recipients of communications freely coming from 
innumerable ''spirits" on the other side! I conclude 
that, even supposing that communication with the 
discarnate be established, there is almost no chance at 
the ordinary spiritistic seance to obtain such mes- 
sages from the spirit world ; invariably they issue from 
the subliminal consciousness of the medium, which 
elaborates these messages and gives them to us in 
personalized form. This is why the innumerable 
groups who sit stealthily around a table only exist on 
account of their ignorance of the elementary facts of 
our nature. . . . It is probable that the day will not 

^ W. J. Graham, Hibhert Journal, January, 1909, p. 265. 

185 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

be far distant when meetings of this character will 
cease to be, or be merged into distinctly scientific 
groups of experimenters, though doubtless much of 
the charm and piquant thrill would thereby be re- 
moved. . . . But I have already expressed my views 
on this question in another place {From India to the 
Planet Mars, pp. 423, 424) and I cannot do better than 
to quote what I then said : 

"I fear . . . for mediums and practical spiritists 
that, when their hypothesis shall have been scientific- 
ally demonstrated, the result may be very different 
from that which they now imagine it to be. It might 
well happen that the cult of the table, automatic 
writing, seances, and all other mediumistic practices, 
may receive their death-blow from the official recog- 
nition of spirits by science. Suppose, in fact, that 
contemporary researches should at last have proved 
clearly that messages actually come from the dis- 
carnate; it has already followed from the same re- 
searches that, in the most favorable cases, the veri- 
table messages are very difficult to distinguish from 
those which are not authentic. When people come 
to understand that this sorting of messages is almost 
always beyond their power they will, perhaps, be put 
out of conceit with experiments in which they have 
ninety-nine chances against one of being duped, by 
themselves or others, and in which — a still more 
vexatious matter — if they should even be so fortunate 
as to light upon the hundredth chance they would 
have no certain means of knowing it.'* 

186 



THE IDENTITY OF SPIRITS 

We hardly see people seeking for gold in the sands 
of the Arve, though there is some there, nevertheless, 
because ''the game is not worth the candle," and no 
one would care to move so much mud for the sake 
of seeing a problematical glitter at the end. ... In 
like manner ... it appears to me probable that 
spiritistic practices will lose more and more their 
charm in proportion to the extent to which science 
shows us the rarity of authentic messages, and the 
impossibility of recognizing them once received. But 
it is true that to children paste will always produce the 
same illusion as veritable jewels. 



VI 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS^ 

WHEN, ignorant of the phenomena of automatism, 
one is introduced to some spiritistic group, and 
witnesses for the first time the phenomena of table- 
tipping or automatic writing, one usually experiences 
a disagreeable feeling of suspicion, the idea that there 
must be some practical joker present who moves the 
table without appearing to do so, or that the pre- 
tended automatic writer is trying to make fun of us 
by asserting that he is not responsible for the scribbles 
of his pen. Soon, however, by the repetition of the 
seances, complete conviction is gained of the honesty 
of the participants and of their indubitable sincerity, 
and — perhaps, also, by reason of personal experience — 
one arrives at the certainty that there is neither 
trickery nor deception. And as these phenomena 
have a certain sense, express ideas, manifest senti- 
ments and intentions, in short, reveal the presence of 
intelligences and personalities like our own, we are 
compelled to admit that we have to deal with minds — 
and minds different from any of those present, since 

^ An address delivered at the General Psychological Institute, 
March 24, 1909. 

188 



I 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

none of the latter recognize themselves as being the 
authors of these graphic and unexpected communi- 
cations, obtained by means of typtology (table- 
tipping). It was, doubtless, in this manner that the 
belief in the existence of spirit communications was 
founded, which was brilliantly represented in Europe 
scarcely two generations ago by the philosophy and 
the writings of Allen Kardec, the founder of French 
spiritism. 

One might say that the doctrine of this author — 
the attribution of mediumistic messages to spirits — 
is the perfectly logical conclusion from two very 
simple premises, viz. — First, that all intelligent phe- 
nomena have intelligent causes, and, second, that the 
messages furnished by a medium cannot proceed from 
the medium himself or other persons present, since 
neither he nor they have any consciousness of being 
the authors of them. Curious to remark, Allen Kardec 
believed it necessary to insist upon the first, as if upon 
a principle which he thought it his duty to proclaim 
constantly.^ . . . The great question for Allen Kardec, 
as for all spiritists, was, of course, to ascertain who 
these various spirits were who communicated through 
his mediums in the circle. For Kardec and his 
disciples they were spirits of the dead — the discarnate. 
For the different theological schools, occultists, etc., 

* See the epigraph which he placed at the head of his Revue 
Spirite, and which figures there to-day: "All effect has a cause 1 
AH intelligent effect has an intelligent cause! The Power of the 
1 Intelligent cause is in proportion to the grandeur of the result!" 

189 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

they were other inhabitants of the Beyond — superior, 
sometimes inferior, even foreign to our human nature 
— angels and demons, elementals and elementaries, 
astral shells and larvae. But no sect has as yet 
thought of ephemeral spirits, born at the moment, and 
neither pre-existing nor surviving the duration of 
their period of active manifestation. For whence 
come they ? It would be too irrational to have them 
arise from nothing through a spontaneous creation, 
soon followed by annihilation; and as for making 
them issue from the medium himself by means of some 
psychodynamic process of which he was unknowingly 
the cause, that would be precisely contrary to the 
axiom that we cannot be the author of anything if 
we have no knowledge of being the author. 

Unfortunately for the reasoning employed by these 
spiritists, this supposition — of the simplicity of the 
self and of its identity with the consciousness which it 
has of itself — is out of date to-day. Since the time of 
Allen Kardec the discoveries of positive science have 
completely disproved this theory, and shown us that 
the " self ," whatever it may be, is composed of a multi- 
plicity of elements instead of being a simple meta- 
physical monad which Kardec assumed. 

Let us recall, briefly, the progress which we have 
made in half a century in the study of our human 
nature and its astonishing complexity. 

I. First, we have the experiments in hypnotism. 
These have taught us that a perfectly sane subject 
placed in a certain special state can, without preserv- 

190 



I 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

ing any memory when restored to his normal state, 
play the most varied roles to perfection and with an 
ease which one would never have expected of him. At 
the least suggestion which is made to him he becomes, 
in turn, a little girl amusing herself with her doll. 
Napoleon I. giving his orders of battle, a wet-nurse 
feeding a baby, and a lion ready to spring upon its 
prey, etc . ; all this is too well known to need restate- 
ment. Now, no one, so far as I know, even among 
the most obstinate followers of Allen Kardec, has 
ever contended that the other world was implied in 
these phenomena of personification (or objectifica- 
tion of types, as Richet called them), and that this 
was truly the spirit of Napoleon, of a wet-nurse, of a 
lion, etc., who returned to inspire the words of the 
hypnotic subject ! 

But then if such is the case, how can we be sure that 
the pretended manifestations and messages from the 
Beyond which fill the seances are not simply manifes- 
tations of the same order — productions of the imagina- 
tion of the medium, suggestions created by his environ- 
ment? ... I do not pretend that the whole of 
spiritism can be accounted for by this theory of imita- 
tive responses to suggestion; it may be that spirits 
can employ this passive state of suggestibility in order 
to communicate with us. I only say that we should 
be most cautious and critical in accepting these spirit- 
istic messages and personifications, since we have 
seen them produced by exterior suggestion or by the 
stimulation of interior imaginings. 

191 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

2. Again, the cases of spontaneous phenomena of 
psychic dissociation, multiple personality, etc., which 
mental pathology has furnished us of late years, 
shows us that, in another manner, our personality 
is liable to split up and assume the appearance of 
other personalities utilizing the same material or- 
ganism. 

Recollect, for example, the famous case of Miss 
Beauchamp, so well studied by Dr. Morton Prince.^ 
For the civil state and for zoology there was only one 
Miss Beauchamp; but for the psychologist and for 
practical life there were several different personalities, 
successively animating or disputing among themselves 
over the same body! Never did people living under 
the same roof, I imagine, possess characters and tem- 
peraments more different, or present a greater antag- 
onism — bursting forth at times into tragic conflicts — 
than the members of this singular family, where 
Doctor Prince pictures for us a veritable saint, a 
demon almost infernal, and a young girl who is neither 
the one nor the other — without mentioning other less 
important personalities. The hypothesis of a number 
of distinct souls could be sustained to the letter in this 
case did not two facts indicate that, at basis, there 
was only one ''soul" present, which played all these 
various roles. For, on one hand, the psychological 
analysis of these characters shows us that they were, 
in a sense, complementary to one another, thus be- 
traying their fundamental unity; and, on the other 

^ The Dissociation of a Personality, New York, 1906. 

192 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

hand, we have the extraordinary history and the 
psychogenesis of the case, in which one sees the primi- 
tive personaHty of Miss Beauchamp break itself into 
pieces, so to say, under the action of moral shocks too 
severe for it, then reunite itself slowly, in the course of 
some years, by means of the skilful care of Doctor 
Prince, and end by re-establishing its complete in- 
dividuality — uniting by psychic synthesis all these 
various parts, so long dissociated. 

As a crystal splits under the blow of a hammer 
when struck according to certain definite lines of 
cleavage, in the same way the human personality 
under the shock of excessive emotions is sometimes 
broken along the lines of least resistance or the great 
structural lines of his temperament. A cleavage is 
produced between the opposite selves — whose har- 
monious equilibrium would constitute the normal 
condition — seriousness and gaiety; optimistic ten- 
dencies and pessimistic; goodness and egoism* in- 
stincts of prudery and lasci viousness ; the taste for 
solitude and the love of nature, and the attractions of 
civilization, etc. Now, these phenomena of contrast, 
of psychic polarization, are precisely what strike us 
so often in mediumistic manifestations when com- 
pared with the habitual temperament of the medium. 
So that these differences, in which the spiritists see a 
striking proof of an absolute distinction between the 
spirits and their so-called instruments, awaken, on the 
contrary, in the mind of the psychologist the irresisti- 
ble suspicion that these pretended spirits can be noth- 

193 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

ing but the products of the subconsciousness of the 
medium himself. 

3 . Finally, even in the normal state the complexity 
of the human mind impresses us every day more and 
more, especially in that obscure region, in the fringe 
of consciousness, where a mass of confused thoughts 
always exists — lost memories, vague reveries, desires, 
cares, regrets, preoccupations, contradictory likings, 
etc., suppressed by the activities of the moment, but 
ready to surge upward on the least occasion and 
manifest themselves, often outside our knowledge, on 
the slightest relaxation of our attention. . . . How 
this chaotic medley can engender precise messages, 
clearly formulated, speaking in the first person, ex- 
pressing ideas and its own peculiar wishes, manifest- 
ing a will and mind of its own (to the point, even, of 
obstinately contradicting the ideas of the medium or of 
those present) , has always been the stumbling-block 
to spiritists. Inconceivable as this appears, it is 
nevertheless a fact, of which I could quote many 
examples. Let me give one, a typical and instructive 
case of this type of phenomena. 

The Case of M. Til 

. . . In 1897, under the influence of his spiritistic I 
friends, M. Til tried automatic writing, and promptly 
obtained communications. He continued these trials' 
the following days ; they caused him great excitement ; 
he became the prey of graphomotor hallucinations, 
which followed him even at night and made him^ 

194 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

write in the air with his finger when he had not a 
pencil. 

The fourth day, on Monday afternoon, having asked 
some questions relative to the character of his children, 
he obtained full replies, as well as vague insinuations 
against his son Edward (employed in the Bureau of 
Affairs) : ' ' Edward must undertake ... I cannot say 
more. . . . Edward does not comprehend the end of 
life. . . . He is too obstinate in his ideas. Ask God 
to make him judge more sanely the things of earth, 
for he has need of suppressing his levity. ... I cannot 
tell you any more." Finally came the following 
accusation : ' ' Edward has taken some cigarettes from 
the box of his employer. The latter has perceived this, 
and in his resentment has addressed him a letter 
advising him to replace them very soon. But already 
he and his friend Bertrand have written in clever fash- 
ion a disgraceful reply." 

One can imagine with what anguish M. Til gave his 
lessons in the afternoon, during which he was again 
exposed to various graphological automatisms, which, 
among others, ordered him to go quickly to the em- 
ployer of his son Edward. He ran there as soon as he 
was free. The chief of the bureau, to whom he ad- 
dressed himself in the absence of the employer, gave 
him only good accounts concerning the young man; 
but the accusative obsession did not consider itself 
beaten, for, while he listened with attention to these 
favorable accounts, his finger wrote the phrase, **I 
am wounded to the core at the duplicity of this man" 
14 195 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

— ^which again aroused all his perplexities. The em- 
ployer arrived very soon after, and it was only neces- 
sary to have his decisive word to reassure the poor 
father and to bring the "bad spirit" at last to repen- 
tance, for it now began to write: ''I have deceived 
you. . . . Michael, forgi'^e me!" At the time, com- 
forted by the recognition of the innocence of his son 
and perplexed by the mystification of the writing, 
M. Til resolved to banish this wicked spirit. . . . He 
had, however, several times to subdue the return of 
this offensive automatism before he was delivered 
from it. 

At a later date M. Til began to receive communica- 
tions of a higher moral order — religious and moral 
reflections, etc. This change was accompanied, as is 
often the case, by a change in the psychological form of 
the communications, which came to him thenceforward 
in auditory messages and articulation — his hand only 
writing what was dictated to him by this interior voice. 
But this mediumship appeared to him "less honest," 
and he mistrusted the source of the messages. . . . 
But as to the early messages, these seemed to him of 
foreign origin, and for long he was persuaded that he 
had been the victim of an evil spirit external to him- 
self. 

This case furnishes us a beautiful example of ob- 
session — not to say possession — ^which automatism 
can rapidly develop in a subject sane of body and 
mind who turns his attention for some time to 
spiritistic practices. But that which particularly 

196 






SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

interests us here is the lying communication con- 
cerning young Til and his supposed theft. M. Til is 
astonished that the demon which took pleasure in 
deceiving him should urge him at the same time, as we 
have seen, to go without delay and hear the informa- 
tion given about his son. ''That was," said he, ''a 
phenomenon which appears very curious. The spirit, 
after having mystified me, did not leave me for a 
minute until I had either verified his assertion or ascer- 
tained that I had been the victim of his deceit." This 
desire of the spirit to expose his own falsehood is in- 
deed singular on the spiritistic theory. The whole 
experience is explained in the most simple manner 
from the psychological point of view if one considers 
the two following incidents, which, to my mind, con- 
tain the key to the mystery. 

1. In what M. Til himself had related to me he had 
remarked two or three weeks before his experiments 
in spiritism that his son was smoking many cigarettes, 
and he had mentioned this to him. The young man 
excused himself, saying that his comrades of the office 
did the same thing, following the example of the em- 
ployer himself, who was a great smoker, and allowed 
them to use his cigarettes, also, so that nothing would 
be easier than to help one's self to them. This explana- 
tion only succeeded in making M. Til a little uneasy — 
for he is honesty personified — and he recalls having 
thought, "I hope my son has not committed that 
indelicacy!" 

2. A second point, which was revealed to me by 

197 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

chance by Madame Til in the course of conversation, 
and which her husband later confirmed to me, was 
that on the Monday in question M. Til met one of his 
friends on his way to business, and the latter had said 
to him: ''By the way, has your son left the bureau? 
I heard that M. Dupain was looking for an employee." 
(He sought, in reality, another assistant.) M. Til, 
who had heard nothing, was most perplexed, and asked 
if M. Dupain was discontented with his son, and in- 
tended to replace him. On returning home at noon- 
time he told this to his wife, but said nothing about it 
to his son. It was an hour later that the calumnious 
message was received. 

We perceive now, I think, the nature and the genesis 
of this ''malign spirit," who falsely accused his son, 
while urging his father to run for information, and the 
reader will already have mentally reconstructed what 
took place in the mind of M. Til. The question of his 
friend that Monday morning subconsciously recalled 
to him the incident of the cigarettes, constituting the 
germ of the inquietude which that incident had left in 
him ; and this kindled the fire of his paternal imagina- 
tion, naturally sensitive concerning the reputation of 
his son: "Edward, who is incapable of a grave dis- 
honesty, has yet allowed himself to be tempted by the 
cigarettes of his employer, as I had feared; he was 
found taking them and threatened with dismissal; 
who knows but that misfortune, which travels quickly, 
has not already brought all this about ! It is neces- 
sary that I should go to his employer quickly," etc. 

198 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

Such are, I believe, the series of suppositions and infer- 
ences, more or less subconscious, which evidently 
served as the basis of these graphomotor obsessions of 
M. Til. 

There is hardly a father, probably, who would not 
have reasoned similarly. Only that which in the 
normal state is presented in the form of memories, 
thoughts, emotions, etc., being evolved in full light or 
vaguely felt in the penumbra of the consciousness — 
always being an integral part of the self — here took an 
automatic character and the appearance of obsession 
foreign to M. Til under the influence of his spiritistic 
preoccupations and in a state of mental perturbation 
due to the fatigue consequent upon his disturbed night 
and his practices of mediumistic writing the preceding 
day. All this proves that what was separated from 
his personality, in this dissociation of his psychic 
being, formed an independent antagonistic system, 
manifesting through the graphomotor mechanism. . . 

To sum up, this series of his messages merely ex- 
pressed the subconscious tendencies and sentiments 
which agitated M. Til on this occasion. The vague 
insinuations, the categorical accusation of theft, and 
the order to go and see the employer, corresponded 
to his subconscious suspicions, then took form in con- 
crete memory. . . . The obstinacy with which the 
graphological automatism replied by an accusation of 
duplicity to the evidence of the chief of the bureau 
shows clearly the latent thoughts of defiance and 
incredulity with which we inhibit statements running 

199 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

counter to our belief. . . . Then, when the employer 
in person calmed M. Til, the subconscious regret of 
having given in to these harrowing thoughts without 
more serious foundation extracted the corresponding 
sentiment in the form of the excuses of the spirit: 
**I have deceived you; forgive me!" . . . 

The question is: Have we to admit the presence of 
another deceiving spirit than that of M. Til himself as 
the author of these phenomena ? It seems to me that 
we do not, but rather that these manifestations are 
all due to psychic dissociation, owing to extreme 
auto-suggestibility. This is not to be taken as an ex- 
planation, but only as a designation of a special state 
or condition of the self, which becomes detached, in- 
stead of preserving its proper relation to the normal 
personality. This becomes apparent to him in the 
form of graphological automatisms. 

Finally, in this case of M. Til we see an example of a 
sort of small romance, subliminally elaborated from 
memories and perceptions, under the impulse of an 
emotional condition more or less intense, by means of 
that curious faculty of dramatization and personifica- 
tion which we see every day in the phenomena of 
dreams. And this example illustrates, to my mind, 
the striking truth — too much overlooked in certain 
quarters — that with perfectly normal persons, in good 
health (at least, according to all appearances), the 
simple fact of practising mediumistic writing for two 
or three days can without their knowledge destroy 
the psychic equilibrium and engender an automatic 

200 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

activity in which the products simulate in the most 
complete manner communications coming from the 
"other side'*; so that they are, in reality, only the 
results of the subliminal functioning of the subject. 
The logical consequence is that, even in the case 
where for want of sufficient information we cannot 
establish the fact that such messages proceed from 
the medium, we must nevertheless assume its correct- 
ness, unless it be proved to the contrary. And the 
practical conclusion which flows from this is that it is 
childlike and imprudent to ''dabble in spiritism," in 
the hope of entering into real communication with 
discarnate spirits (even supposing it to be an abstract 
possibility) . The only motive which justifies this in- 
vestigation is disinterested scientific research. For 
those who practise spiritism the result too often is 
complete mental dissociation. 

You will see by this example that those who give 
themselves up to spiritistic practices often receive 
false messages — coming from their own subliminal 
consciousnesses — which have all the appearance of 
coming from foreign personalities. As for explaining 
these phenomena and understanding how — by a 
little mental relaxation on our part — the vague 
tendencies floating on the margin of consciousness 
come to be personified separately, to the point even 
of constituting veritable personalities momentarily 
possessing an ''I," only to lose it a moment later, 
and be buried again in our subconsciousness — that is 
another problem, the examination of which would 

301 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

take us too far at the present time. We can, if you 
wish, say with Prof. William James that "all con- 
sciousness tends to personal form." But the fact 
remains that the psychic elements over which we cease 
to exercise our immediate control tend, as in a dream, 
to form an independent personality, an "I," for them- 
selves. Although there may be in the future better 
explanations of these phenomena, the fact is that we 
possess within us spirit-imitating functions or proc- 
esses {spiritoid, as Boirac calls them)^ whose ephem- 
eral products are very difficult to distinguish from the 
pretended spirits of spiritism. 

What contributes still more to the illusion is that, 
however little one questions their identity, these so- 
called foreign personalities do not hesitate to conform 
to the expectations of the medium, and to pass them- 
selves off as the defunct. In the majority of cases 
these communications cannot be verified. I could 
quote many cases in which so-called spirits have after- 
ward been found to be living ! It is true the spiritists 
attribute these lying communications to ''joking 
spirits"; but a little more attentive analysis shows, 
rather — as in the case of M. Til — that no other spirit 
than the medium himself is present; it is composed 
of his emotions, his desires or his fears, his reasonings 
— in short, of elements readily traceable to his own 
nature — which constitute the contents of these mes-f 
sages, in spite of their personal form, which appear 

^ Boirac, La Psychologic inconnue, 
2Q2 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

to Issue from another personality, speaking through 
him as intermediary. 

To sum up, in the course of the last half-century, 
experiments in hypnotism, the study of spontaneous 
alterations of personality and the observations of our 
psychological processes have revealed in the human 
mind a complexity of nature and possibilities of in- 
terior dissociation — of which they were quite ignorant 
at the time of Allen Kardec, but which have totally 
ruined the axiom which serves as the principal pillar 
of his theory. It no longer suffices that an individual 
should not be conscious of being the author of these 
manifestations in order to prove that he is in reality 
the channel of independent spirits. The passive 
attitude, the abdiction of the will — which the medium 
adopts in the hope of helping the communications of 
spirits — tends, quite naturally, to abolish the feeling of 
initiative, of personal causality, of being a producer of 
activity, of voluntary control — which normally ac- 
companies the exercise of our thoughts and to a 
certain point the creations of our imagination. But 
the loss of this feeling does not in the least hinder 
the inferior psychic processes from continuing their 
activity unknown to the subject. From all this the 
necessity of great prudence before attributing to the 
discarnate everything which has the appearance of 
proceeding from them, and the legitimacy of a 
critical attitude, by the impartial observer of spir- 
itistic phenomena, is obvious. Lack of this is the 
great defect of those exponents of spiritism who 

203 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

wish science to occupy itself with their phenom- 
ena. 

All cases, it is true, are not so simple and trans- 
parent as that of M. Til. Mediumistic creations 
appear often in such contradiction to the natural 
capacities of the medium that it seems absurd to make 
them altogether responsible for them without the 
collaboration of discarnate spirits. And, after all, I 
do not see any necessity for denying, a priori, the 
possibility of spiritistic intervention in the astonishing 
messages which are sometimes obtained at seances. 
Only before passing from the possibility of a thing to 
the affirmation of its reality it is first of all necessary 
to take account — more than the habitues of these 
seances generally do — of illusions and complications 
which might spring from various purely terrestrial 
sources, of which the principal are, on the one hand, 
processes of memory and subconscious imagination, 
and on the other hand the transmission to the medium 
of information proceeding not at all from the discar- 
nate, but very clearly from living beings within his 
immediate environment. I recapitulate rapidly these 
two points : 

I. I scarcely need insist upon the large share which 
latent memory plays in all mediumship. The stock of 
memories which we have at our disposal is very meager 
in comparison with the impressions gathered in the 
course of years, and which slumber in our subcon- 
sciousnesses. Have we not seen, under certain circum- 
stances — drunkenness, fevers, cerebral accidents, hyp- 

204 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

notic states, spontaneous somnambulism, etc. — these 
memories, long thought dead, revived from the mys- 
terious depths of our being, and not even recognized 
by the patient or his companions ? 

You remember the case of the old lady who, seized 
with delirium in the course of pneumonia, began 
suddenly to speak an unknown tongue, which, upon 
inquiry, was found to be Hindustani — which she had 
neither spoken nor heard since she was brought to 
England, at the age of four years, two-thirds of a 
century before!^ Suppose that this person, taking 
part in a spiritistic seance, had presented the same 
phenomena in trance, would we not have exclaimed, 
"A miracle!" and thought it a momentary incarnation 
in her of some defunct Brahman? Might it not be 
that all these mediumistic messages are caused by the 
reproduction of latent thoughts and memories, per- 
haps heard subconsciously when the attention was 
otherwise distracted? 

A medium can, with the best faith in the world, 
declare that the contents of a certain message were 
absolutely unknown to him, and it would appear 
unlikely, indeed, that he ever had knowledge of it. 
These negative arguments are by no means certain 
proof that the messages in question are anything more 
than impressions received by the eye or the ear of the 
medium — ^which he did not ever remember. Nothing 

^ H. Freeborn, "Temporary Reminiscence of a Long Forgotten 
Language," etc., Lancet, June 14, 1902, p. 1685. Reproduced and 
abridged in Journal, S. P. R., October, 1902, p. 279. 

205 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



« 



is more difficult than to establish a proof that such 
and such a fact was not at one time or another seen or 
heard by a medium, and subconsciously reproduced in 
an access of automatism. The spiritistic public, 
unfortunately, neglects these elementary truths, and 
accepts as manifestations from the Beyond what is 
only the common phenomenon of cryptomnesia.* 

I 

^ While this criticism may apply to a certain class of spiritists, it 
does not apply to the more intelligent nor to the "psychical re- 
searchers," who are keenly alive to such possibilities, and who 
were, as a matter of fact, the very first to point out all such loop- 
holes for normal explanations. But such a theory does not ac- 
count for those facts — upon which the case really rests — which 
can be shown never to have been known to the medium (so far, 
that is, as it is possible to prove a negative), but which appear in 
her automatic writing or trance utterance, none the less. It is 
upon this supernormal information that the case rests, and not at 
all upon those incidents which might be explained by the mere 
recurrence, in the trance state, of forgotten memories. Professor 
Flournoy would, of course, be the first to acknowledge this; but it 
seems needful to point it out in this place, and thus avoid a mis- 
understanding both of his position and of the intelligent psychical 
researcher. 

Professor Flournoy's theory does not cover either those cases o 
direct clairvoyance and premonition, for the reality of which there 
is now a mass of evidence. 

As to premonitions, however. Professor Flournoy gives an 
interesting case in his book entitled The Prophetic Dream of Mme. 
Buscarlet, devoting a whole chapter to it. In brief, the case is 
as follows: 

Mme. Buscarlet dreamed that she was on a country road, with a 
friend, and saw passing before her a carriage, whence issued a 
voice, which called the friend. When they approached the car- 
riage they saw within it the form of Mme. Olga Popoi, lying full 
length, deadly pale, clothed in white, wearing a bonnet adorned 
with yellow ribbons. She said to Mme. Buscarlet, " I have called 
you to tell you that Mme. Nitchinof will leave the Institute on the 
17th." The carriage then drove on. She wrote this in a letter 

206 






SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

Imagination, in its turn, often joins its phantasma- 
goria to these forgotten memories. . . . Some people 
have an imagination so strongly developed that they 
continue to make up stories all their lives ; they live in 
a world of revery, and this is particularly true of 
i young girls and women freed from the ennui and 
routine of domestic duties, etc. Nothing facilitates 
mental dissociation so much as these states of relaxed 
■' attention — these interior reveries and personal ro- 
„ mances, in which one usually plays the chief role and 
- where one injures one's self in the enchantment of a 
half -wakeful dream. 

With mediums the imagination frequently becomes 

a creative power of the first order, vast in quantity, 

J if not good in quality. May I be permitted to recall, 

some weeks later to a friend. Mme. Nitchinof died on the i6th, 

:; and was carried out of the Institute on the 17th — having died 

. suddenly of an infectious disease. The dream took place six 

weeks before the death of Mme. Nitchinof, The two women 

we're slightly known to each other; but no letters had of late 

: passed between them, nor had they seen each other for some time. 

The friend who occupied a place in Mme. Buscarlet's dream was, 

however, a great friend both of Mme. Nitchinof and of Mme. 

Buscarlet. Mme. Nitchinof began to feel ill about five weeks 

after the prophetic dream. Mme. Buscarlet and Mme. Nitchinof 

had not seen each other for a considerable time before the date of 

the dream. There was, therefore, no normal connection, appar- 

i ently, between Mme. Buscarlet and Mme. Nitchinof which might 

i have inspired it. Nevertheless, it was fulfilled almost to the letter. 

Professor Flournoy does not advance any definite theory; but 

f states that he does not believe that chance will account for the 

facts, and is evidently inclined to favor the theory of telepathy 

Ih trois, advanced some years ago by Mr. Andrew Lang in his 

-i discussion of the case of Mrs. Piper {Proceedings, S. P. R., vol. 

Jxv, pp. 48-51).— Tr. 

207 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



II 



h prop OS of this, the case of Mile. Smith; who, besides 
her romances of former existences — in the person of a 
Hindu princess and of Marie Antoinette — created a 
Martian language, which, when analyzed more closely, 
was seen to be only an amusing travesty on French,^ 

The mystery of astronomy — like astrology in former 
days — is one of the most likely subjects to set on fire 
the imagination of a medium. Remember the houses 
on Jupiter, drawn by Sardou when he was a medium)' 
and the recent case observed by Hyslop in America 
of Mrs. Smead, who also invented a Martian romance, 
and drew the people and the buildings of the planet 
Mars, and wrote the language which they speak there 
— all independently, it appears, of Mile. Smith. ^ The 
most striking thing in all these mediumistic imaginings 
is their childish and puerile character — terribly foolish 
if one sees in them the work of a person of maturity 
and seriousness. . . . 

This peculiarity is perhaps the most instructive of " 
all which these communications have revealed to us, 
from the psychological point of view, because of the 
light which it throws upon their constitution and their 
mode of formation. In the same way that organic 
tumors are composed of cells remaining in or returning 
to an embryonic state — which begin to proliferate 
unduly — these mediumistic romances seem to be 



* See From India to the Planet Mars, New York, 1900. 

^ See Hyslop, " Preliminary Report on the Trance Phenomena 
of Mrs. Smead" (Proceedings, Amer. S. P, R., vol, i, pp. 525-722). 
— Tr. 

208 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

abnormal exbrescences on the personality of the me- 
dium, which is relapsing into a primitive condition, 
where it displays the youthfulness and exuberance of 
vitality which is the property of youth. This display 
of vitality, which would be normal and suitable in the 
period of infancy, ceases to be so and easily becomes 
morbid when it is exhibited later on in life. . . . 

2 . The second source of complications which I have 
in mind is telepathy, or mental transmission, which 
furnishes to the medium information which he does 
not possess, and which the spiritists attribute to the 
discarnate, even when it takes place between living 
persons ! (I here use the term ' * telepathy' ' as a simple 
designation for the facts, without employing it in any 
way as an explanatory hypothesis.) Certain it is 
that telepathy takes away all evidential value from 
certain communications received which might other- 
wise be thought to be spiritistic in character. Whether 
this telepathic transmission from one mind to another 
takes place in some normal manner (such as uncon- 
scious whispering) , or by means of brain- waves pass- 
ing from one brain to another (as in wireless teleg- 
raphy) , or by means of a purely psychic communica- 
tion from soul to soul, or by the intermediary of 
occult agents, etc., that is another question, into 
which I cannot enter here. I merely follow the 
example of M. Bourget, who, having given his little 
traveling clock to Mrs. Piper, to whom he was un- 
known, and having received from her information as 
to the origin of this clock and an account of the tragic 

209 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

death of its former owner, concluded that, as this 
information did not go beyond what he already knew, 
he did not believe that he was authorized to see in this 
the presence of a departed spirit; and he concluded 
simply that the medium's mind had a method of 
gaining information as yet unknown to science. 

Without doubt, if mediumistic revelations always 
referred to the discarnate, and to none others, we 
might infer that they were good evidence of spirits, 
and spiritism would gain in strength proportionately. 
But there are a number of similar cases where they do 
not concern either the dead or the dying. Andrew 
Lang, among others, has published cases in which a 
person practising crystal-gazing saw appear in the 
glass ball scenes and localities unknown to her, but 
which were thought of or known by other persons 
present in the same room; and he observed several 
examples of indirect telepathy, or telepathy a trots, 
which show that the conscious thought of one living 
individual can be transmitted to the subconsciousness 
of another (which can no longer be doubted) and, by 
means of this bridge, reach a third person, through 
whom it becomes externalized in visions, table-tip- 
pings, automatic writing, etc. 

Now, we do not know how far this mysterious realm 
of telepathy between the living can reach, and what 
are its limits — if there be any. Spiritists, it is true, 
have devised a very ingenious explanation of tele- 
pathy, by which they introduce spirits in a manner 
which one would not have dreamed of. It is that 

2IO 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

since telepathy between the Hving has not been ex- 
plained (any more than universal gravitation), it 
might take place by means of the instrumentality of 
spirits, who act like carrier pigeons, as it were, carry- 
ing the thought from one mind to another — mystic 
intermediaries between mind and mind in the in- 
carnate. 

One cannot absolutely refute this hypothesis, which, 
in itself, has nothing impossible about it ; but it pre- 
sents the grave methodological defect of multiplying 
causes without necessity. For if the intervention of 
the discarnate be necessary to explain the facts of 
telepathy between living people, how are we to ex- 
plain the rapport of the discarnate between themselves, 
or between them and the living, unless by invoking 
over again between all these spirits a power of tele- 
pathy (either physical, by means of etheric vibrations ; 
or mystical, through the immediate communication of 
souls), which might more easily be supposed to act 
directly between the living, without making this 
superfluous detour through the spirits of the dead ? 
In short, when one explains telepathy by the action of 
the discarnate one must explain this action itself by a 
sort of telepathy, and so on ad infinitum. 

The best means of escaping from this quandary, 
according to the habit of science, is to formulate 
empirical laws. We might say that telepathy be- 
tween the living — particularly between the medium 
and members of a spiritistic group — is one of these 
laws, although still vague as to its necessary condi- 

15 211 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

tions. The only point which appears to me worthy of 
being raised, because it is so often observed, is that 
the ideas of the sitters which have the greatest chance 
of being transmitted to the medium are those in a 
sort of nascent or evanescent condition, upon the 
threshold between consciousness and subconscious- 
ness, and passing from one to the other. Many people 
going to consult a medium are astonished that the 
medium tells them nothing that they are thinking 
about, but reveals to them details of which they did 
not dream. However, upon closer analysis, it will 
be found that the facts related have tended to awaken 
these sleeping memories by association of ideas. In 
the same way as in chemistry bodies in an unstable 
condition have a more marked tendency to form new 
combinations than when in the stable state, in the 
same way one might say that the psychic processes 
about to blossom or to fade away in the penumbra of 
consciousness have more power of radiating to other 
brains than those which are partly immovable — either 
in the foreground of attention or in the lowest stratum 
of the subconsciousness. 

But this is not the place to dilate further upon the 
problems of telepathy. My sole aim in touching upon 
them is to point out a cause of error too often neg- 
lected in spiritistic seances. A medium personifies 
a dead person whom he has never known in a manner 
so admirable that it carries conviction to the sitters. 
They do not dream that perhaps one of them carries 
with him a group of memories which at the very 

212 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

moment that they are organized and flashed upward 
in the form of a composite portrait of the departed is 
telepathically reflected in the subconsciousness of the 
medium, as in a hving mirror, which immediately 
translates this image or imprint into words and gest- 
ures, portraying without a doubt a certain resem- 
blance, but one in which the defunct has no share. 

Combine, now, the facts of mental transmission 
with the products to which memory and subconscious 
imagination of the sitters can give birth, and you 
will understand what unforeseen complications may 
always be expected in spiritistic seances. So extraor- 
dinary do the revelations appear that it is very dif- 
ficult to exclude the possibility that they are due to 
a play of action and reaction between the medium and 
the other persons present (who are often mediumistic 
themselves, no doubt) . A certain amount of skepti- 
cism as to the spiritistic nature of these manifestations 
is certainly pardonable under such circumstances ! 

But here we come to another great difficulty. * ' You 
pretend,'* it may be said, ''that these so-called spirit- 
istic messages can be given without the intervention of 
real spirits of the departed — by innate psychological 
processes more or less complicated, but which are 
inherent in our nature and to which may be added 
telepathy from the living. . . . But what have you to 
say of the physical phenomena of mediumship — move- 
ments of the object without contact, lights, materiali- 
zations of forms, etc. ? Not one of us has yet noticed 
that he possesses a single trace of supernormal power 

213 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

of that kind — not enough to move a pin the fraction of 
an inch without the normal aid of our fingers or our 
breath. If, then, the accounts which are given of such 
phenomena be true (and how can we doubt it in view :| 
of the vast amount of evidence collected by com- 
petent authorities?), it is necessary that, in these 
phenomena at least, we should postulate the inter- 
vention of discarnate spirits, or other occult agents 
of some kind different from the medium himself.'' 

I recognize this objection, and I shall not try to 
escape it by saying — as is so often done — that no 
serious man believes this rubbish, or that all pre- 
tended mediums producing physical phenomena are 
charlatans, or that the authenticity of these phenom- 
ena has not been scientifically established, or that 
they are impossible, being contrary to the funda- 
mental conceptions of science, etc. At the same 
time, I do not pretend to say that I believe all the 
hair-raising stories which have been given to the 
public by the spiritists and occultists; but I recall 
the principle formulated by Laplace, ci propos of the 
facts of animal magnetism, held to be incredible by 
the majority of the savants of this day, but which, 
under the name of hypnotism, are to-day an integral 
part of our official science : 

*'We are so far from knowing all the agencies of 
nature and their various modes of activity that it 
would not be philosophical to deny phenomena simply 
because they are inexplicable in the actual state 

214 



II 
I 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

of our knowledge, only, we ought to examine them 
with an attention the more scrupulous as the facts 
appear to us the more incredible." 

I should not be astonished if in the future the 
phenomena of telekinesis and materialization are as 
thoroughly established as are those of hypnotic sug- 
gestion, in spite of the fact that it is most difficult to 
admit these phenomena, because we cannot com- 
pletely explain them. But we no longer treat as 
impostors, or imbeciles, or hallucinated the savants, 
always more and more numerous, who have examined 
these phenomena with the most scrupulous attention, 
and have been convinced of their reality. It seems to 
me that we find ourselves in this respect on the verge 
of a new world of scientific thought. You will have 
divined that I allude to the marvels of Eusapia Palla- 
dino — so well studied for more than twenty years by 
Charles Richet — and who, though detected in trickery 
at Cambridge in 1895, has since achieved a brilliant 
revenge upon her investigators by following them 
into their own laboratories and defying them to expose 
her "tricks" or to explain them by known laws of 
physics. Within the past few years her phenomena 
have indeed gained wider and wider acceptance. In 
particular, I mention the exhaustive work of Mor- 
selli,^ professor of psychiatry in the University of 
Genoa and one of the foremost leaders of Italian sci- 
ence, whose professional studies and philosophical ten- 
* Psicologia e Spiritismo, Turin, 1908 (2 vols.). 

215 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

dencies hardly predispose him to tolerate any infringe- 
ments of known biological laws, but who, convinced 
by the evidence, has written a powerful defense of the 
phenomena of Eusapia, accepting as genuine even the 
materialized phantoms! Then, again. Professor Bar- 
rett, the Irish physicist, who, after the exposure of 
Eusapia at Cambridge, suspended the publication of 
his book, based in part upon the phenomena of 
Eusapia, for more than twelve years, has published it, 
thinking that the times have decidedly changed and 
the pendulum of public opinion swung in her favor. ^ 
And, again, the Psychical Research Society of London, 
which — true to its principle that it would never 
investigate a medium once detected in fraud — sud- 
denly changed this policy, and delegated its most 
skilful observers to study Eusapia anew (and who, as 
we know, issued from their examination convinced — 
even Mr. Carrington, that terrible enemy of fraudu- 
lent mediums in America). Again — not to lengthen 
unduly this list of recent conversions — we have the 
remarkable report of M. Courtier on the seances of 
Eusapia at the General Psychological Institute — a 
report so guarded and so instructive that one can 
hardly gather the real conclusions of the author, but 
in which it is stated that many savants of the first rank, 
while reserving, with academic prudence, their final 
verdict, witnessed, under excellent conditions of con- 
trol, phenomena absolutely inexplicable by them. 
Let us admit, for the moment, as a working hypoth- 

* On the Threshold of a New World of Thought, London, 1908. 

216 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

esis (as I think we shall have to some day), the 
reality of physical mediumistic phenomena, including 
materializations. This immediately places before us 
a double problem: that of their material nature and 
that of the intellectual manifestation of which they 
are the expression. On one hand, for example, in the 
presence of an authentic phantom we have to deter- 
mine whether it has an anatomy, tissues — physiological 
functions, etc. — resembling ours; then, how it is con- 
stituted from the physico-chemical point of view; 
then, when all that has been determined, to what point 
this ephemeral creation satisfies the exigencies of our 
actual mechanics, agrees with the principle of the 
conservation of energy, etc. On the other hand, we 
have to scrutinize the character of the mental life, the 
entire mode of feeling and thought, of this mysterious 
being, and to determine its possible connection with 
the mentality of the medium and of the sitters. 

Of these two problems, or groups of problems, the 
first is a problem for physicists and physiologists, and I 
abandon it to them willingly. The second, which 
relates to psychology, interests me more, inasmuch as 
it deals with the question of their initial production, 
and the origin, in the last analysis, of these mysterious 
phenomena. 

For — since it has been proved that the forces or 
material substances which constitute materializations 
proceed from the organism of the medium (whose 
weight and energy diminish as the body of the phan- 
tom grows) — if the mentality of this phantom were 

217 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

absolutely different from that of the medium and the 
sitters, that would tend to support the theosophico- 
spiritistic theory, according to which the physical phe- 
nomena are due to entities from *'the Beyond," who 
borrow from the medium the materials necessary for 
their manifestation. But, on the contrary — even if it 
were thoroughly established that they did not borrow 
an atom of matter or energy from the medium, and 
that they were precipitations or condensations direct 
from the surrounding atmosphere, ponderable or im- 
ponderable — if their psychological individuality could 
be traced back to the medium, we ought, scientifically, 
to regard them as creations or metamorphoses of the 
latter, without any intervention from "the Beyond." 
In short, whatever may be the ultimate verdict of 
physics and physiology upon - the phenomena of 
materialization, telekinesis, etc., it remains for psy- 
chology, I think, to give the last word on the origin 
and the genesis of these phenomena. . . . 

In order to prove this contention let us select for 
examination two or three of the most noted historical 
cases — viz., those of Crookes, Richet, and Morselli. 

The Case of Katie King 

In default of detailed psychological information in 
this case, I shall be brief in discussing the phantom 
of Katie King, which manifested in solid form — com- 
posed of flesh and bone — to Sir William Crookes, 
through his medium, Miss Florence Cook. The 
apparition was so real that the noted chemist walked 

218 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

with her arm in arm in his laboratory, photographed 
her several times, and proved that she differed from 
the medium in several ways — by a larger waist, a 
smoother skin, the absence of a scar on the neck, the 
more regular beating of her heart, more healthy lungs, 
etc. In short, Crookes contends that the phantom 
was other than that of the medium from the physio- 
logical point of view. "I am absolutely certain, he 
writes, that Miss Cook and Katie King are too distinct 
individualities, at least so far as their bodies are con- 
cerned.^*^ This reserve — in which is revealed the 
prudence of a true savant — has appeared to me worthy 
of being emphasized. 

Unfortunately, the illustrious observer did not enter 
into as detailed a comparison of the mentality of 
the medium and that of the spirit as between their 
organisms, and it is therefore impossible to give an 
opinion upon this point. So far as I can judge, how- 
ever, there is nothing to prevent Katie King from 
being a product of the creative imagination of Miss 
Florence Cook. That this young girl, fifteen years 
of age, honest and sincere as she is represented to us, 
should have conceived the idea of a spirit guide — as 
pure and noble a figure as the apparition which is pict- 
ured to us by Crookes — is perfectly comprehensible; 
and as for the biography of this spirit and its romance 
of adventures (in India, naturally), there is nothing 
here which does not conform to the usual type of 
hypnoid creations. 

* See his Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism. 

219 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

It is impossible, it is true, for us to explain the 
details of this case; first of all, because Crookes does 
not give them to us; and secondly, because if we 
knew them our ignorance of the daily life of Miss 
Cook — of all that she read or heard — would prevent 
us from reconstructing the suggestions and auto- 
suggestions from which these details proceeded; but 
there is no reason for us to see in this figure anything 
spiritistic. 

To sum up : Setting aside the great physical mystery 
of materialization (granting it to be authentic), I see 
nothing in the psychic personality of Katie King 
(little as we know of it) which obliges us to see in her 
an entity from *' the Beyond " rather than an external- 
ization of her subconsciousness — a hypnoid elabora- 
tion of Florence Cook herself. 

The Phantom of the Villa Carmen 

This was the materialization observed by Prof. 
Charles Richet, in Algiers, some years ago, in which 
the "spirit" of Bien Boa was supposed to have mate- 
rialized. Writing of his experiences, he says in part '} 

''This phantom has been produced and repeated in 
a number of seances which have taken place in the 
month of April, 1905, in Algeria, in a little pavihon 
situated in the garden of the 'Villa Carmen,' in- 
habited by General Noel and his wife. The medium 

* For details of this case see The Annals of Psychical Science, 
October and November, 1905 (for Richet's Report), and several 
succeeding numbers. — Tr. 

220 



II 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

was the daughter of a retired officer — Mile. Martha 

B , aged nineteen years, whose fiance, the son of 

M. and Mme. Noel, had died the year before in the 
Congo. This young person was placed in an angle of 
the room encircled by curtains. Scarcely had she 
fallen asleep (in trance) in this cabinet, where the 
sitters could continually see her through the parting 
of the curtains, than there appeared before them a 
sort of Oriental warrior, clothed in white draperies, 
on his head a helmet, replying to the name of Bien 
Boa. Sometimes he was seen to issue from the 
cabinet, sometimes, more curious still, he grew and 
developed rapidly from a sort of white ball which 
appeared upon the floor before the curtains, like a 
person coming up through a trap-door. 

''This personality," said M. Richet, ''is neither an 
image reflected by a mirror, nor a doll, nor a mani- 
kin. Indeed, it possesses all the attributes of life. I 
have seen it emerge from the cabinet, walk, go, and 
come into the room. I have heard the sound of its 
footsteps, its breathing, and its voice. I have touched 
its hand on several occasions. This hand was artic- 
ulated, warm, flexible; I have been enabled through 
the drapery with which it was covered to feel the 
wrist, the carpal and the metacarpal bones, which 
bent under the pressure of my grasp. The phantom 
also blew through an India-rubber tube into a flask of 
barite water, which bubbled, proving that the respira- 
tion of this phantom produced carbonic acid, exactly 
like our own." On the other hand, M. Richet con- 

221 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

4 

siders it certain by reason of his minute examinations 
of the place, the sitters, etc., that this Hving being, 
who disappeared in the same manner that he appeared 
after a few moments, was neither the medium dis- 
guised nor a confederate surreptitiously introduced 
into the room. Finally, the fact that this being was 
photographed excludes the idea that this strange vis- 
itor was only an hallucination of the persons present. 
If such a phenomenon is authentic, it would be 
interesting to note the revolution which must neces- 
sarily follow in our biological ideas. Nature has_ 
taken upon our globe some hundred million years t( 
transmute chemical substances into humanity; yet 
now it requires but twenty years to complete an adult ; 
and voilh! by means of a young girl asleep behind 
curtain it is possible by reason of a species of partheno- 
genesis of a nature yet unguessed to produce in tw( 
minutes a veritable Arab, of fine stature, with a bean 
down to his chin, walking, speaking, breathing as our- 
selves, and, above everything else, born with a helmet 
on, like Minerva, only much more fully clothed than 
she! ... It is true that this fantastic apparition 
endured but a very short time; it was reabsorbed 
almost immediately it appeared. However, it re- 
appeared, they say, from seance to seance for several 
years, and during each of its existences of an hour or 
so it was so substantial that they took stereoscopic 
views of it. . . . Had I to give my opinion as to the 
nature of this phantom, I should certainly feel myself 
greatly embarrassed. On one hand, considered in 

222 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

itself, and setting aside the name of the reporter, it 
does not differ essentially from all those cases of the 
same character with which spiritistic reviews bristle. 
I wish to say that the phantom of which we are speak- 
ing hardly surpasses the feats of good prestidigitators 
or the current repertoire of the professional American 
medium, so clever in reproducing this class of ma- 
terialization.* . . . 

But, on the other hand, we have the name of Richet ! 
Now, whoever has had the privilege of knowing this 
admirable investigator knows well enough his scien- 
tific caution, his exceptional perspicacity, and his 
unrivaled experience at mediumistic seances. It is 
psychologically very difficult to believe that he allowed 
any such simple artifice to mystify him; that is why I 
remain in the attitude of philosophical doubt — deny- 
ing nothing a priori and affirming nothing without 
sufficient demonstration. For if, logically, "every- 
thing is possible," even the creation ex nihilo of an 
Arab, it is also necessary that *'the weight of the 
evidence should be proportioned to the strangeness of 
the facts" — which is evidently far from being the case 
in the recital in question. 

The author, indeed, affirms that he took all necessary 
precautions against fraud ; but as he does not describe 
them in detail, doubts involuntarily arise in the mind 
of the reader. ... At the same time, the argument 

* See Mr, Carrington's Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism, pp. 
230-275, for full details and. descriptions of the various methods 
resorted to by fraudulent mediums in producing this class of 
phenomena. 

223 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

drawn from "common sense" does not alone suffice J 
... If it is contended that such phenomena are 
''impossible" because they are opposed to common 
sense, it may be replied that the ''common sense" of 
the majority of people tells them that spiritism is the 
true explanation of these phenomena — which is not at 
all "common sense" for the savant! . . . And, in view 
of the present unstable condition of scientific thought 
I should certainly hesitate to deny the logical possi 
bility of materialization. . . . 

At all events, subsequent proposed explanations 
based upon the theory of fraud or illusion, have proved 
inadequate; and this case may be classified, together 
with that of Florence Cook and Katie King (studied 
by Sir William Crookes), as so far unexplained by 
science. 

However, let us turn from the question of the physi- 
cal phenomena of materialization (which, as I have 
said before, is a question for physicists and physiolo- 
gists, and I gladly leave it to them) to a consideration 
of the mentality of the phantom — its psychological 
genesis and content. For the spiritists of the Villa 
Carmen, Bien Boa (the medium's control) was, of 
course, an inhabitant of "the Beyond" — a Brahman 
Hindu, who had died some three hundred years before, 
and become the spiritual guide of the Noel family. *j 
Although he materialized, he said, with the help of th 
''fluid" supplied by Martha (the daughter), the latter 



I 



* The medium was, in this case, one of the daughters of Gen- 
eral Noel, and the seances took place in their own home. — Tr. 

224 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

was not indispensable, for several other mediums had 
already succeeded, in the house of M. Noel, in material- 
izing this same phantom, always with the same 
intellectual and moral attributes. Spiritists see in 
this, naturally, a glorious confirmation of their thesis ; 
and truly it seems to prove that Bien Boa is a distinct 
and permanent entity, who can draw from several 
mediums the force or fluid for his temporary mani- 
festations. But before adopting this conclusion we 
ought to know something of the relations and charac- 
ter of the mentality which exist between this spirit and 
the different members of the group to which he mani- 
fested. In the hope of clarifying this problem, I read 
through the accounts of these seances, published by 
Mme. Carmencita Noel herself, and I was much amazed 
at the curious features of resemblance which exist 
between the physiognomy of Bien Boa and that of 
Leopold, the guide of Mile. Smith. As the latter is 
assuredly only a psychic creation of the medium, and 
not a separate entity, I cannot but think that he is 
similar to Bien Boa in his constitution and person- 
ality. 

Permit me rapidly to sketch the principal analogies 
which have struck me between these two so-called 
spirits from the other world : 

I. Their Dependence on the Medium. — Leopold, who 
claims to exist independently of Mile. Smith, his 
medium by choice, ought to be able to manifest in her 
absence, through other mediums, and theoretically 
he affirms he can do so ; but practically neither he nor 

225 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

Mile. Smith has ever admitted the authenticity of 
messages supposedly coming from him which other 
mediums stated that they had received. So that, as 
a matter of fact, he depends entirely upon her for 
his manifestation. Bien Boa himself recognized 
freely his dependence upon Mme. Noel. It was she 
who was the true medium of the circle, and her physi- 
cal and mental health influenced in a powerful man- 
ner the apparitions of her guide. . . . 

A quotation will support this view of the facts : 

*'Bien Boa," said Mme. Noel, "has always declared, 
either by the table or by writing, and later by his 
own mouth, when materialized — that the true medium 
at these seances was not Vincentia Garcia (a former 
medium), but myself, the president's wife. ... He 
did not cease to repeat to me: 'All depends on you; 
for you are the pivot upon which all turns. Without 
you I can do nothing; no black thoughts, no sadness, 
be sparing of yourself, rest well, do not tire yourself, 
your gaiety is necessary to me.* Also, contrary to 
the usual custom, he obliged me always to magnetize 
the medium at least a half-hour in the cabinet at the 
beginning of the seances, in order to pass into her my 
'fluid.' . , :* ^ 

On January 22, 1902, Bien Boa appeared quite 
recognizable as to his figure and his clothing, but, 
unfortunately, veiled — a fact which was due, without 
doubt, to an indisposition of Mme. Noel. The "guide" 

226 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

always reminded Mme. Noel of the importance of her 
health upon the results.* 

2. Their Rapport with the Medium. — If we analyze 
the spiritual ties, the emotional sympathy, which 
unite Bien Boa to the medium we find them identical 
to those which exist between Leopold and Mile. Smith. 
Like Leopold, Bien Boa is a guide of the highest moral 
elevation; a consoler, a supporter, a practical coun- 
selor, and, above all, an adorer very much in love 
with his protege — he surrounds her with constant 
care, covers her with kisses, and lavishes upon her 
declarations of the most ardent character. So far as 
these pathognomonic characteristics are found, they 
resemble the numerous psycho-sexual creations of 
which so many cases are known at the present day. 
This interpretation of the psychological character of 
Bien Boa is further corroborated by the manner in 
which this amorous mentor came into being. ^ 

3. Their Psychogenesis. — We see by the above 
quotation that Bien Boa's origin was due to an antag- 
onism or psychic conflict in the course of spiritistic 
s6ances held in a mixed environment, the evident 
result of a sort of cleavage between the dispositions or 

^ See Revue Scientifique et Morale du Spiritisme, Annee 1902-03, 
pp. 341, 342, 594-97- 

2 Bien Boa "never loses the occasion of preaching to us an 
elevated moral sermon, insisting especially upon union, harmony, 
concord, and purity of morals." . . . Speaking for himself, the 
guide said: "I have come here for my Carmencita; I love her, I 
love her! Carmencita, I love you, I love you, I love you! . . . My 
Carmencita, well beloved, I adore you!" (Revue du Spiritismef 
1902-03, pp. 415. 594; 1903-04,?. 156, etc.) 
16 227 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

tendencies of a lower order and the better nature of 
the medium revolting against these grosser influences. 
. . . Both are manifestly the reactions of a feminine 
defense, a personification of sentiments of bashfulness, 
moral and physical, provoked by the manifestation of 
a male character through a female organism. 

It was in a small town in the provinces, where 
General Noel was commanding the garrison, that 
these seances commenced — the circle being composed 
of General Noel and his wife, and three officers of the 
army. Now, without in any way slandering the 
army, it may be said with safety that the subconscious 
thoughts of these officers were not precisely the same 
as those of a young woman of high ideals ! And, in 
the same way that two opposing electricities, existing 
in a neutral state in the soil, separate themselves 
suddenly upon the approach of a storm-cloud, one 
can believe that the introduction of these officers 
produced in the psychic atmosphere of the seance 
a polarization of currents which became personified 
and condensed into two separate characteristic person- 
ifications as opposed and contradictory as the demon 
and the saint in the case of Miss Beauchamp, which 
hardly leaves us any doubt as to their genesis through 
mental dissociation. One can also judge of it from the 
following report of Mme. Noel herself, which is admi-J 
rably clear in this respect: 

' ' One fine evening we took it into our heads to turnj 
tables. After a short time the table began to move, 
and we learned that two entities were present. The] 

228 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

first was, so he said, the old master of the house. Com- 
mander Brauhauban, an artillery officer, dead for 
some twelve years. The other announced himself as 
the guide and personal control of Mme. Noel. He 
was an Indian Brahman. He told us later that he had 
been dead for some three hundred years. These two 
entities have never left us ; they represented for us two 
opposing characters — Ormuz and Ahriman. Their 
personalities are totally different. While one (the 
Brahman) is noble, reserved, correct, a mentor of the 
highest morality, the other (the officer) showed him- 
self to be what he was in life — abrupt, a tease, original, 
a practical joker of somewhat bad taste, especially as 
regards women ! " * 

One can hardly imagine or better describe the 
phenomenon of contrast through dissociation which 
was produced at these mixed seances at the home of 
M. Noel, and which immediately took on the appear- 
ance of two separate spirit entities, in accordance with 
the well-known tendency of mediumistic automatisms 
to simulate deceased persons. 

With the later changes of residence and environ- 
ment of Mme. Noel, the military commander appeared 
to cease his manifestations, while her guide, Bien Boa, 
once created — keenly alive to her intimate aspirations 
and rooted in the deepest fibers of her nature (like 
Leopold to Mile. Smith) — remained henceforth at- 
tached to her. 

The Final Elaboration of their Romance. — It was 

^ Revue du Spiritisme, 1902-03, p. 269. 
229 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



1 



only from a certain moment when, after many varied 
incidents and suggestions (in which an engraving in a 
book of Alexandre Dumas appears to have played 
a peculiar role) , that Leopold confessed himself to be 
really the discarnate spirit of Cagliostro, and to have 
adored Mile. Smith, in a former existence, when she was 
Marie Antoinette. Similarly with the guide of Mme. 
Noel (who materialized himself dressed like the figure 
seen in a well-known engraving). It was not until 
much later that we learned that under the pseudonym 
of ''Bien Boa" was hidden a Brahman of quite another 
name, who had had a curious romance with Mme. 
Noel in a former existence!^ 

We might push these analogies further between the 
two guides in question, and show, for example, that the 
figures which came later on and added to the mani- 
festations of Bien Boa (his sister Bergoglia, etc.) 
are the equivalent of other personalities — in the 
somnambulistic romance of Mile. Smith — Astane, etc. - 
But the points which I have raised suffice, I think, * 
to justify my theory that (with the exception of the 
power of materializing which Bien Boa possessed, 
and of which Leopold had not given the slightest 
indication), there is a great similitude between these 

^ When Bien Boa materialized, the head-dress was that of a 
Hindu spirit, represented in the famous engraving of Tissot. The 
costume also slightly resembled it. The entity (Bergoglia) told 
a veritable romance of the most curious order, explaining the ties 
which, according to her, attached Mme. Noel to Bien Boa. ** This 
name," continued she, "is not his; it is an assumed name under 
which he has made himself known to you" (Revue du Spiritisme, 
1902-03, p. 346, and 1904-05, p. 538). 

230 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

two so-called discarnate spirits. I therefore con- 
clude, until proof be adduced to the contrary, that the 
phantom of the Villa Carmen, from the psychological 
point of view, was assuredly only an imaginative 
elaboration of Mme. Noel — a product of her creative 
fancy, a sort of hypnoid ramification of or excrescence 
upon her own individuality. 

The Materializations of Eusapia 

We must pass rapidly over this subject, which has 
been excellently treated by Morselli. It is necessary 
to distinguish in the Palladino phenomena between 
those which depend upon John King and the cases, 
far rarer, where apparitions have been seen of 
other recognizable persons — for example, the dead 
mother of Morselli himself. These latter are indeed 
difficult to explain by the imagination of Eusapia 
alone, who had probably never known of the existence 
of these dead people. But when we remember the 
possibilities of mental transmission from the sitters 
to the medium, the fact becomes intelligible without 
having recourse to the discarnate. It is clear, how- 
ever, that this does not necessarily exclude them. 
Certainly one could discuss this point forever; and if 
it be not the "dead returned," it would be amusing 
to find Lombroso getting angry and proving that it 
really was Mme. Morselli who was manifesting to her 
son when Morselli himself did not believe it, and 
declared that the apparition simply reflected, by 
means of the plastic intermediary of Eusapia, the 

231 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

memories which he had preserved of the departed! 
The critical reader is here obHged to hold to the 
methodological principle of economy; we are not 
scientifically authorized to find in "the Beyond" the 
origin of facts which are perfectly explicable by con- 
scious or subconscious processes in the living. 

As for "John King," a soi-disant English buccaneer 
of three centuries ago, Morselli retraces the history of 
his pretended manifestations, through diverse me- 
diums, for fifty years, and shows clearly, it seems to 
me, how all these personifications carry the impress, 
often puerile, of imaginations stimulated by the en- 
vironment. In order to establish that "John King" 
is really a being in himself, and distinct from the 
mediums through whom he pretended to reveal him- 
self, it would be necessary to have other proofs than 
those which have been offered to us in the past. 

Thus, when one analyzes, from the psychological 
point of view, these three cases of materialization — 
which are the most celebrated, and which present the 
best evidence of scientific guarantee — they speak less 
in favor of a real intervention of the discarnate than 
the action of certain psychodynamic processes, ac- 
companying hypnoid formations, or sub-personalities, 
which form a part of the medium himself. The ob- 
jective phenomena of materialization exceed, it is true, 
all our received ideas of physiology, and force us 
to accept hypotheses entirely new; but even here, if 
one wishes to remain faithful to the principles of 
experimental science, in considering the explanation 

232 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

of such obscure and extraordinary facts, we should 
begin by appeahng only to forces and faculties yet 
unknown, instead of referring them to ''spirits" or to 
other purely hypothetical agencies in order to explain 
the phenomena. 

As you will see, the facts of mediumship (either 
mental or physical) have not furnished me with any 
certain proof of the intervention of the discarnate. 
They have always appeared to me explicable by 
ordinary psychological processes within ourselves — 
often complicated on one hand by the embellishments 
of memory and subconscious imagination, and on the 
other by telepathy from the living. Then, in certain 
cases (and even here very rarely), we have the em- 
ployment of powers of telekinesis and materializa- 
tion, which are occasionally seen, but as to the neces- 
sary conditions for which we know almost nothing. 

Do I therefore consider spiritism condemned for- 
ever? Such a conclusion on my part would be little 
short of grotesque, for, first of all, not being infallible, 
I may be deceived in my interpretation of the facts 
which I have tried to interpret ; and, also, these facts 
constitute only an infinitesimal portion of those to be 
found in the literature on the subject which we have 
not examined, especially those numerous facts which 
are constantly being observed, but which, for some 
reason or other, are never seriously investigated. 

Finally, without asserting that the spiritistic hypoth- 
esis is absurd or anti-scientific at basis, we should 
certainly demonstrate its reality before we accept it. 

233 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

And I must again assert emphatically that I have 
never yet come across a case which has appeared to 
me to satisfy all the exigencies of the scientific method. 
It seems to me that before we can appeal to the inter- 
vention of new causes in the psychical and physical 
phenomena of our world— of causes such as the in- 
fluence of the discarnate, we must first of all attribute 
to normal causes all that we possibly can — viz., to the 
incarnate. Unfortunately, the discoveries of the last 
half -century give rise to the thought that we have still 
much to learn of our own natures. And nothing 
warrants us in thinking that the "residue," which 
Allen Kardec attributed to the agency of discarnate 
spirits, and which we have already so reduced, will 
not further be reduced some day by the progress of 
science until almost nothing remains. 

In my opinion, therefore, spiritism has not been 
scientifically demonstrated — -but perhaps it will be 
to-morrow ! . . . I mention here two classes of phenom- 
ena which may some day prove spiritism to be true. 
They are, first, phenomena (which might be called 
"elective synthesis") which the mediumship of Mrs. 
Piper has furnished. A large number of cultivated 
people, even our best savants, have emerged from 
these seances convinced that they have communi- 
cated, through her entranced organism, with spirits of 
the dead, whom they had intimately known on earth. 
Doubtless many of these striking cases can be ex- 
plained by mental transmission — the medium having 
only reflected to the sitter the image of the discar- 

234 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

nate which he himself carried in his thoughts. But 
there are more complex facts, in which it is necessary 
to admit an active and selective telepathy, by the aid 
of which the hypnoid imagination of Mrs. Piper can 
choose from the minds of the living — present or 
absent — memories concerning only the dead person 
in question, and reunite them in such a way as to 
reconstruct a completer image than any of the partial 
images which were left in any of the various persons 
of his acquaintance. Now, how explain this power of 
choice, of exact synthesis, which the medium (who 
did not know the deceased) is enabled to exercise, if 
this is not through the intervention of the latter, who 
directs and co-ordinates this world of ideal reconstruc- 
tion, or who, more simply, manifests in person through 
the medium ? 

Let us suppose that the incomplete memory of the 
defunct which one of the sitters possesses is trans- 
mitted telepathically to Mrs. Piper, and that she, 
by attracting to her, by some obscure psychological 
process, other fragmentary memories possessed by 
other persons, welds these all together into a complete 
whole — a sort of mosaic composed of numerous frag- 
ments. Have we not seen that the same individual 
impresses various members of his family in different 
ways, though there is a sort of analogy and emotional 
background common to all these, forming a sort of 
principle of attraction or psychic bond by means of 
which it might be possible to select from their minds 
these memories, and that they might become fused 

235 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

and blended in the subliminal consciousness of the 
medium, having been selected, by reason of this 
hypothetical mark of distinction ? 

''Like attracts like." If this proverb be true of the 
memories of the defunct, preserved by the living and 
transmitted to the subconsciousness of Mrs. Piper, we 
could understand that these memories, being selected 
and classified by her, might give place to reconstruc- 
tions of so exact and recognizable a nature that even 
the persons whom they represented might actually 
be astonished by them ! ^ 

* It should be stated, in this connection, that several competent 
psychical researchers have examined this hypothesis in great 
detail, and have rejected it. The theory, doubtless, is a fascinating 
one — one which I myself was inclined to accept some years ago, and, 
in fact, actually wrote in its defense. (See Proceedings, S. P. R., 
vol. xvii, pp. 33 7-59.) I should no longer defend this theory, though 
I am not yet convinced of the correctness of the spiritistic view, es- 
pecially as at present held. Doctor Hodgson and other critics have, 
however, examined this "selective telepathy" idea, and rejected it 
after a careful study of the facts. The best counter argument is, 
however, in my estimation, that of Doctor Hyslop, which I sum- 
marize very briefly. It is contained in his first report on Mrs. 
Piper {Proceedings, S. P. R., vol. xvi). Against the "telepathic 
hypothesis" are urged the following considerations: 

1. The necessary selectiveness of the process (for which we have no 
analogy whatever, even in wireless telegraphy, and the odd fact 
that only our memories of the dead are tapped) . 

2. The magnitude of its application to all living consciousness 
and memory. (Outside these phenomena there is no scientific 
evidence whatever that such a form of telepathy exists; experi- 1 j 
ments give no proof of its existence.) 1 1 

3 . Inconsistency of its mistakes and confusion with the assump- 
tion of its easy access to all living memories. (If this omniscient 
telepathy were a fact, how account for the constant mistakes and 
confusions which should not occur on such a theory, but which 
do occur, as a matter of fact, and which are just the mistakes we 

236 




MRS. LEONORA E. PIPER 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

I do not know whether such a hypothesis squares 
with the facts better or worse than the spiritistic; 
they are so compHcated and involved that it is very 
difficult to estimate them fairly in a lecture. But it is 
certainly disconcerting that Prof. William James, who 
discovered and studied Mrs. Piper for more than 

should expect on the spiritistic hypothesis — i. e., supposing the 
person were actually " there.") 

4. Differences in the clearness of communicators. (These differ- 
ences do not seem to depend at all upon the mental state and 
memories of the sitter — which should be the case if the telepathic 
hypothesis were true — but solely upon the communicator. Some 
are always "good communicators"; others always "bad" — no 
matter who the sitter may be.) 

5. Inconsistency of the communications and change of communi- 
cators. (On the telepathic hypothesis there is no reason for the 
constant change of communicators; the apparent difficulties from 
which they suffer in communicating, etc. On the spiritistic 
hypothesis this is all quite natural.) 

6. Inconsistency in its assumptions. (In order to make the 
telepathic hypothesis "work," we must assume certain difficulties 
in the process to account for the observed facts. Yet the ease and 
flow of the communications do not at all agree with this view of the 
case.) 

7. Variations of the point de repkre. (The theory of selective 
choosing of facts by the medium's subliminal consciousness be- 
cause of their " color- tone" or "label of familiarity" is completely 
wrecked by the theory of intermediaries — an amanuensis on "the 
other side" who, it is said, does the writing, etc.) 

8. Reproduction of what would be expected on the spiritistic 
theory. (If selective telepathy be true, why does it not obtain 
for us many facts besides those given ? Yet only those are given 
which we should expect on the spiritivStic hypothesis.) 

9. Necessity of combining various other processes and assump- 
tions with telepathy. (This is unwarranted and unsupported by 
the facts.) 

Other objections might easily be given, but the above will 
suffice to show that the spiritistic hypothesis has something to say 
for itself, though it may not ultimately prove to be true. — Tr. 

237 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

twenty years, and who was one of those most thor- 
oughly famiHar with her phenomena, should declare 
that he ''awaits new facts, clearer and more precise," 
before he is able to say with certainty whether these 
messages truly emanate from the discarnate or 
whether they are the subliminal creations of the 
medium which we see in the trances of this remark- 
able woman ! 

The second class of phenomena which seems to 
promise much for the spiritistic hypothesis is that of 
' ' cross-correspondences. ' ' 

Suppose, e. g., that three mediums, on three different 
continents, furnish simultaneously communications, 
giving (without other explanation and without the 
spectators understanding why) one Monday and 
Wednesday, another Sunday and Thursday, the third 
Friday and Saturday, and that through a fourth me- 
dium, quite separate from the first three, we should 
receive the following communication : ' ' Tuesday com- 
pletes the series; I have done that in order to prove 
my independence of the instruments which I employ" 
— it would, we must confess, be difficult to resist the 
conviction that behind these four individuals doing the 
writing there is a fifth individual whose thoughts have 
conceived and put into execution this ingenious means 
of proving to us its separate and distinct reality. This 
would be still more striking if, instead of an idea as 
elementary as the days of the week, we suppose a 
poem, an episode in history, a philosophical idea, 

238 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

which is the key to the enigma, and which appears 
suddenly by the juxtaposition of fragmentary mes- 
sages or unintelHgible allusions, so long as they re- 
mained isolated. Ah, well! It may be that the dis- 
carnate have recently devised this curious procedure 
in order to convince us finally of their existence. In- 
deed, the members of the Society for Psychical Re- 
search have already gathered quite a collection of 
these "cross-correspondences,'* obtained almost at 
the same moment through the automatic writing 
of excellent mediums — Mrs. Holland, in India; Mrs. 
Forbes and Mrs. Verrall, in different towns in England; 
Mrs. Piper, in America, etc.; and, according to the 
script of the latter, which contains usually the solu- 
tion of the mystery, it is none other than the spirit of 
Myers himself who invented and put into execution 
this admirable method.* 

Unfortunately (why is it that critical reflection 
always discovers flaws in the most perfect demon- 
strations ?) , the fifty or sixty cases of cross-correspond- 
ence published up to the present are far from having 
the accuracy and precision of the example which I 
have given above; and the revelations of the so- 
called Myers through the various mediums are so 

* The question of "Cross-correspondences" has been the subject 
of many important papers in the Proceedings of the S. P. R. (see 
especially the Reports of Mrs. Verrall, Proceedings, S. P. R., vol. xx, 
pp. 205-75; Miss Johnson, vol. xxi, pp. 219-391; Mr. Piddington, 
vol. xxii, pp. 19-416; Mrs. Henry Sidgwick, vol. xxiv, pp. 170— 
200; Miss Johnson, id., pp. 201-63; Doctor Hyslop, Proceedings, 
Amer. S. P. R., vol. iv, pp. 338-776, passim, etc.). — Tr. 

239 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

nebulous or so imperfectly concordant that a doubt 
exists as to the whole mass of facts. And then, even 
granting the reality of the cross-correspondences, 
might not this "fifth intelhgence " be a creation of one 
of the four mediums, which, by means of telepathy at 
great distances, influenced the minds of the other 
three in order to ridicule our efforts in the pursuit of 
the discarnate? Let us wish that Myers or the 
other spirits — if they really come into play at all in all 
this — will soon reveal to us a means of eliminating 
from mediumistic manifestations the combined action 
of the subliminal imagination, of which we have too 
often proved the maliciousness, and of telepathy from 
the living, of the limits of which nothing is yet known. 
While awaiting this let us leave the door open to the 
possibilities of the future. 

CONCLUSION 

I have carefully abstained in this lecture from 
touching upon philosophical, moral, religious, and 
even social questions, which are so often mingled with 
the question of mediumship. . . . But, speaking here 
under the auspices of the General Psychological 
Institute, it seems to me that I should remain, as it 
does, upon purely scientific ground. 

I also think that it is an error to identify spiritism 
and spiritualism (as is so often done in England and 
America). . . . For, even were the discarnate and 
their manifestations universally recognized as em- 
pirical realities, materialistic monism would assuredly 

240 



SPIRITS AND MEDIUMS 

be enabled to interpret them, after its fashion, as 
ephemeral and fortuitous combinations of ponderable 
or imponderable matter, actuated by the consciousness 
of other living beings. The question of the verity or 
the falsehood of spiritism is not, in my opinion, of 
essential importance in making a deliberate choice 
between the various attitudes which may be adopted 
in viewing the mysteries of the Universe and of Life. 



VII 

THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

THROUGH the courtesy of my learned colleagues 
— Professor Richet, of Paris, and Doctor von 
Schrenck-Notzing, of Munich — I had the opportunity 
of seeing Eusapia Palladino at two seances (Decem- 
ber, 1898, and February, 1903). The Palladino phe- 
nomena, which for twenty years have defied all ex- 
planations by orthodox science, are to-day so well 
known and have given birth to so much literature 
that it would be superfluous to relate in detail the 
seances which I attended, inasmuch as they are not 
among the most brilliant, not presenting any visible 
materializations. I will limit my remarks to those 
incidents which at one of the seances impressed me 
the most — a seance which in certain respects is his- 
toric — I speak of the seance of December i, 1898, in 
Professor Richet 's library, which was arranged for 
the purpose of assisting Eusapia to regain her reputa- 
tion, and again to reinstate herself after her lamen- 
table failure in England three years before. Myers, 
as is well known, had assisted, in 1894, at the seances 
held on the lie Roubaud, at the house of M. RichetJ 
and had become convinced of the authenticity of the 

242 



i. 



i 




EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

(Seated at the seance-table in the room where most of the New York sittings 

were held.) 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

phenomena. But when, the following summer (1895), 
he invited her to his home in England in order to study 
her, in conjunction with his English colleagues, fate 
willed that the poor woman, led into temptation by 
the very conditions permitted, allowed herself to trick 
— that is to say, being insufficiently controlled, and 
assisted by darkness, she found means to liberate one 
of her hands, and with it to move objects within her 
reach or pinch her neighbors. This trick had already 
been discovered and exposed by Richet, and it was 
easy to detect her, or at least to prevent her from 
doing so at the moment when she attempted it. 
But the Cambridge experimenters, unfamiliar with 
her methods and phenomena, encouraged fraud in- 
stead of hindering it ; ^ then, faithful to the principles 
of the Society for Psychical Research (which dis- 
qualifies all those mediums who have been caught in 
trickery), they discontinued their experiments with 
Eusapia, and she had to return to the Continent with 
the bitter feeling of having been unmasked like a 
common charlatan. This result naturally caused 
Myers to doubt the validity of his former experiments, 
which he was no longer certain had not been viti- 
ated by the artifices in question. 

^ Especially Hodgson, who had not assisted at seances with 
Eusapia on the Continent, and who was very unfavorably disposed 
toward physical mediums by reason of his past experience. We 
must remember that it was he who, when sent to India to inquire 
into the pretended prodigies of Mme. Blavatsky, succeeded in 
completely exposing the fraud which this celebrated exponent of 
itheosophy had attempted to found her doctrine upon. (See Pro- 
ceedings, S. P. R., vol. iii, pp. 201-400, and vol. ix, pp. 129-59.) 

17 243 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

For three years things remained in this condition7 
until Richet, thoroughly convinced of the authenticity 
of the phenomena by fresh observations, repeated, 
with all possible precautions, his experiments, and 
asked Myers to attend a new seance, which, it was 
hoped, would be decisive in one way or another. It 
was so, in fact, and in favor of the reality of the phe- 
nomena. Eusapia assured the sitters that it was her 
intention this time to produce phenomena under un- 
impeachable conditions, and herself suggested all the 
precautions one could wish: First, contrary to her 
liking (or rather that of her trance personality, 
''John King"), this seance took place in a good light 
throughout, permitting one to follow all the move- 
ments of the medium by sight. Second, in addition 
to the visual control, Eusapia permitted throughout 
the seance a tactile control. It was not she who held 
the hands of her neighbors or placed her feet against 
theirs, according to the custom she preferred (which 
would naturally facilitate the liberation of one of her 
limbs) ; it was they who, in turn, held her wrists and 
ankles. For my own part, I held her left wrist, sur- 
rounding it with my thumb and middle finger, like a 
ring, at the same time seeing with my eyes that I had 
a direct and immediate contact which could not be 
rivaled by any method of indirect control, such as 
tying with string, etc. Third, before each experience 
she took care to tell us what she was going to do, 
in order that it might not surprise us, and that each 
one could establish the phenomenon to the best of his 

244 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

faculties and observation. Evidently fearful that 
Myers could not control her satisfactorily — as at the 
seances at Cambridge — and would afterward think 
that the control had been insufficient at the moment 
of the production of any phenomenon, that no one 
knew what had just passed, that the facts remained 
doubtful, etc., she did not cease to admonish him to 
pay the closest attention, to observe carefully the 
condition of affairs, and afterward to remember 
exactly what had happened. 

Under these conditions I saw phenomena which I 
then believed, and still believe, to be certainly inex- 
plicable by any known laws of physics or physiology. 
The large and heavy curtains of the window, to which 
Eusapia turned her back, and from which the back 
of her chair was separated by a distance wide enough 
to permit one to pass through, were, after several 
trials, blown out by a violent wind, parting them from 
their upper support, and settled down over the head 
of the medium as if they were suddenly blown out by 
a violent gust of wind coming from behind. This 
was after several trials, at the moment when the 
medium violently contracted all her (well-controlled) 
muscles. The lower part of one of the curtains was 
suddenly lifted up and carried over the table, where it 
covered the arms of the medium and that of the con- 
troller who was holding her. The zither, which we 
ourselves had placed on the ground, in the embrasure 
of the window, out of the reach of the medium, began 
to sound, and gave forth the same note eleven suc- 

245 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

cessive times; then we heard it move and jump, by 
jerky bounds, over the floor. Finally it was flung, 
as if by an invisible hand, upon the table, where it 
remained upside down — i. e., strings downward. In 
this position, under our eyes, and without being 
touched by any one — the medium making movements 
in the air above it at a distance of fifty centimeters, 
with her hand held by the controller — the zither re- 
sounded ten or twelve times synchronously with her 
movements. Several times I felt myself touched, as 
did the others present ; I was struck, my arm squeezed, 
as though by a large hand, which gave an invisible 
pinch, etc. All this was when the limbs of the me- 
dium were well in sight, and held in such positions 
that they could not reach me. 

Myers was this time — as were all the others — abso- 
lutely convinced of the reality of the phenomena, 
since the evidence left nothing to be desired. He was 
still further convinced, to the point of certainty, by 
a second seance, which we held two days later (De- 
cember 3, 1898).* ^1 

During this seance **John King," speaking witn 
Richet during an interval in the phenomena, acknowl- 
edged that Busapia had indeed tricked in the seances 
at Cambridge Myers returned to England having no 
longer any doubt as to the reality of the supernormal 

14 

* M. Boirac, rector of the Academy at Dijon, who had only been 
able to attend the first s6ance, has published a detailed account of 
it, as well as the one following ours (December 5, 1898), also held 
at M. Richet's house, but which Myers did not attend. 

246 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

nature of the facts, and he made his declaration public 
at the general meeting of the Society for Psychical 
Research which took place a little later (December 8, 
1898). 1 

I do not believe that, in the case of Eusapia, any 
number of detailed records, fortified by any number 
of instantaneous photographs, can convince any one 
who has not himself been present at a seance with 
this medium. As a matter of conscience, however, I 
feel it my duty to report, without giving uselessly 
minute details, some of the facts which appeared to 
me the most conclusive, and which have left me with 
a feeling of certainty which cannot be effaced. As 
to the Palladino phenomena, which I have not per- 
sonally seen — the movement or breaking of large 
pieces of furniture at a distance, levitations or changes 
of weight of the medium, materialized apparitions of 
hands or figures or faces, etc. — I naturally have the 
right to say, "I will only believe when I have seen 
them " ; or, as so many people say, * ' I would not believe 
even if I should see them!" But am I justified in 
thus criticizing in too offhand a manner the evidence 
furnished by other savants, who may be superior in 
perspicacity to myself? Without doubt, had I as- 
sisted at the same seances, I, too, should have per- 
ceived the same phenomena as they; if they were 
deceived, I also should have been deceived. I have 
no difficulty, therefore, in admitting, by courtesy, all 

* Journal, S. P. R., vol. ix, pp. 4, 35. 

247 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

that the other observers have testified to and serioush 
reported upon. 

NORMAL HYPOTHESES 

The abundant and fantastic records which the 
savants pubHsh each year on the exploits of Eusapia 
are, from the point of view of traditional science, an 
extraordinary enigma, for the reason that all normal 
suppositions which one could make regarding them 
encounter difHculties equally great. The hypotheses 
appear to me to be divisible into the five following: 
Confederacy or collusion, chance, fraud, hallucina- 
tion, and a combination of all of these. Let us exam-j 
ine them rapidly. 

1. Confederacy. — Let us suppose that there is a vas 
organized conspiracy composed of the witnesses of 
the Palladino phenomena. In reality Messrs. Luciani, 
Morselli, Bottazzi, and many more — to speak only o 
Italians — are not alone concerned, but also Richet 
Ochorowicz, and so many others on the northern sid 
of the Alps. These men must all be in a vast conspir 
acy to mystify their readers and teach their obdurate' 
colleagues what to say in turn ! Except for the fact 
that such a vast organization as this has never had its 
traitors, this hypothesis would please me very well. 
But I forget that I myself am part of this conspiracy, 
and that I have already said too much ! 

2. Chance. — It happens that a curtain suddenly 
bulges out, because a mouse gets into its folds ; that a 
table splits suddenly on account of the humidity or 

248 



J 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

the dryness of the atmosphere; that a guitar sounds 
on account of the rupture of a cord, etc. . . . Chance 
accompHshes much, but in actual Hfe when it coin- 
cides too often it takes the name of "natural law," 
and becomes the object of our science. And the ques- 
tion is, whether the curious incidents which fill the 
seances of Eusapia are not already sufficiently nu- 
merous and regular to merit the name of scientific 
realities. 

3. Fraud. — Consciously or not, Eusapia will pro- 
duce her phenomena by trickery. . . . Her partisans 
themselves do not deny that when one allows her to 
get free she employs simple fraud, such as the substi- 
tution of a hand or a foot, etc. The difficulty is in 
proving that she does not always do this. Professional 

prestidigitators do many marvelous things 

Professional scientific men, shut up in their labora- 
tories and dealing with nature only, which does not lie 
to them, might make but poor witnesses of such 
tricks. . . . 

The hypothesis of fraud — or, if you will, of the 
imbecility of the observers who are unable to discover 
it — is very attractive, and the one which will be gener- 
ally believed, though it, too, has its difficulties! 
In the first place, it attributes to the savants a stu- 
pidity which is surely a trifle exaggerated. Also, the 
Eusapian seances and those of conjurors differ in one 
fundamental point: it is that the latter work with 
objects which they have been able to prepare in 
advance, while this is not the case with Eusapia, who 

24.9 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

operates in any room whatever — even in the physio- 
logical laboratory of a university; and, indeed, there 
is not a conjuror living who could produce the same 
manifestations under the same conditions of control. 
Finally, not only has no one so far discovered the! 
actual modus operandi, but no one has even given us 
the least comprehensive explanation as to its nature 
and method of production. I do not speak of those 
simple methods of trickery which have often been de- 
tected, but of those puzzling phenomena which occur 
in her good seances, and which have never yet been 
satisfactorily explained by any one, or shown to be 
fraudulent. Against them rests simply the general 
presumption of fraud, of a nature still unknown. Of 
course this theory can never be refuted, but it should 
be supported by facts, which it is not.* 

But it is clear that as the years go by her seances 
become more and more mystifying. For ten years i 
hoped her methods of trickery might be discovered — 
the secret of this mystery — but this hope is now 
shattered, and is at present so small that I cannot 
believe that it will ever be fulfilled. 

4. Hallucination. — It must be remembered that we 
are not here concerned with sporadic hallucinations — 
the effects of fatigue and semi-darkness— which would 
vary with each individual, but with coincidental and 
persistent hallucination of all the spectators. It is 
necessary to postulate an hallucination, at once cohe- 

^I have repeatedly pointed this out in my writings on Eu- 
sapia. — Tr. 

250 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

rent, continuous, and collective, inducted by Eusapia 
in all her spectators. Certainly this hypothesis must 
not be lost sight of.* Podmore advanced the idea 
that the power of hallucinating the sitters is part of the 
stock in trade of all good mediums ; and this hypothe- 
sis has been reinvented, developed, and applied in 
detail to some of the Palladino phenomena by one of 
my friends, M. Tommasina, a well-known physician, 
noted for his work in radioactivity and his kinetic 
theory of gravitation. M. Tommasina is especially 
attracted to this hypothesis — the power of fascina- 
tion which Eusapia supposedly employs — to explain 
those phenomena which were produced in the spring of 
1906 in the physiological laboratory of the University 
of Turin, and which had for their witnesses, among 
others, Dr. P. Fod, professor of pathological anatomy, 
and the three assistants of the illustrious physiologist 
Mosso — Doctors C. Fod, Herlitzka, and Aggazzotti.^ 
(To cite only one example of the inexplicable phenom- 
ena which these savants claim to have proved, a heavy 
table, which no one was touching, was broken in pieces, 
the nails torn out, and the wood broken, under the eyes 
of all the sitters and in good conditions of light, while 
Eusapia was watched and held by three controllers.) 

^ See Podmore, Modern Spiritualism, vol. ii, pp. 76, 159, 238, 
244-69, etc.; Count Petrovo-Solovovo, Proceedings, S, P. R., vol. 
xxi, pp. 436-515; H. Carrington, Journal, American S. P. R., De- 
cember, 1909, pp. 711-27. 

2 For an account of these seances, which created a profound 
sensation throughout Europe, see Eusapia Palladino and Her 
Phenomena, pp. 100-08. 

251 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

"In the experiences of Turin," says M. Tommasina, 
*'as in those of Paris and Genoa, Eusapia deceived 
every one by a very simple means. vShe said to the 
physiologists who surrounded her: 'You believe that I 
delude you by tricks ; place the instruments in such a 
position that I cannot move them; hold my hands in 
yours, place your feet against mine — I shall be your 
prisoner; but,' added she, inwardly, 'it is you wha 
will be at my mercy'; and that is what took place. 
But even if one can hypnotize a person without con- 
tact simply by looking at him, every one knows that 
it is most difficult to do this to several subjects at 
once, especially psychologists capable of recognizing 
the slightest attempt of the kind. It follows, then, 
that Eusapia must have direct contact with those 
whom she wishes to influence by suggestion, and she 
obtains it, obliging them to control her themselves. 
That is to say, she thereby disarms them from all 
suspicion of trickery, which is a very clever stroke on 
her part. 

''Let us see how she effects it in the case of the 
breaking of a table at a distance, which has appeared 
to be one of the most inexplicable of the phenomena 
witnessed by the assistants of Professor Mosso. From 
their description, even, it appears that those not in 
direct contact with Eusapia were obliged, at her 
request, to make a chain of hands with those who 
touched her, and the doctor upon whom she had 
thrown her spell, in order to accomplish the operation,* j 
was invited at the desired moment to touch her 

252 




THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

shoulder, or to seize one of her hands, which were 
already held by the other controllers. It will be 
observed, also, that Eusapia, before proceeding to 
more difficult tests, regularly produced less important 
phenomena, which served to facilitate the progressive 
power of her influence upon all the assistants, until the 
moment arrived when she could strike the final blow 
and effect the seeming miracle. This instant arrived, 
Eusapia acts with all her power, and, as rapidly as 
possible, allowing the action to be executed by the 
individual chosen (after having suggested to all the 
others not to see him), he, while unconscious and 
hypnotized, deceives his colleagues by himself accom- 
plishing the action while believing that he is control- 
ling the medium, who pretends to produce the manifes- 
tation at a distance by her mysterious power. It is 
at this moment that all the spectators, except the 
actor, who has become invisible to them, see, e. g., the 
table move about by itself, the nails come out by 
themselves and fall to the ground, the joints of the 
boards torn apart, and the whole table break up and 
fall to pieces with a heavy crash." ^ 

^ To my mind, it is one of the strongest possible proofs of the 
reality of the phenomena — in the case of Eusapia — that such rub- 
bish as this has to be advanced in order to escape accepting them 
as genuine. This is just the kind of criticism which emanates from 
a man who sits in his chair and criticizes the reports of others and 
spins fine theories — wide of the mark — instead of investigating 
the facts for himself. To any one who has witnessed the phenom- 
ena, the hypothesis is, of course, simply absurd. In the case of 
the Eusapian seances, the phenomena are undoubtedly real, and 
this has been proved by photography. The photographs alone 

253 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

This is not a textual quotation, but a resume of M. 
Tommasina's theory. M. Tommasina analyzes, in the 
same way, other phenomena reported as particularly 
striking by Foa and his colleagues, and attempts to 
show that in all cases Eusapia has already taken the 
precaution to place one of the spectators in such a con- 
dition that he could easily, by hypnotic suggestion, 
himself perform the wished-for phenomenon at the 
favorable moment — that is to say, when all the other 
sitters were also hallucinated for the moment in an 
appropriate manner. 

To sum up, the hypnotist Eusapia influences her 
spectators one and all by her hypnotic power. First, 
by her immediate contact with one of them, she 
transforms him into a mere automaton, and he, in 
good faith, performs the actions which she suggests to 
him (as, e. g., breaking up a table). Secondly, by the 
action of her ''magnetism" upon the other sitters she 
makes passive subjects of them, and they perceive no 
more than she wishes them to perceive (the table 
falling in pieces), which results in consequence of 

disprove such a conception, since no person is seen moving the 
objects ! Then, again, I have never seen any one at her seances 
in a frame of mind other than that of a skeptical investigator — 
cautious, alert, active — while Eusapia herself, so far from giving 
suggestions, was lying, half -entranced, in the arms of her con- 
trollers. Does this look like suggestion? Finally, at the first 
three seances at Naples — attended only by Mr. Feilding and my- 
self — are we to assume that one of us left the table and wandered 
about the room, producing phenomena, while the other one never 
noticed his absence? As I said before, to any one who has wit- 
nessed her seances, such explanations as the above are simple 
nonsense. — Tr. 

254 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

systematized anaesthesia and negative hallucination 
(on account of which they cannot see their colleague 
breaking up the table). Third, the phenomenon 
having been produced and the seance terminated, she 
returns to these dupes their normal consciousness, 
with the clear remembrance not of what actually 
occurred, but of what was engraved on their memories 
by the suggestions of the medium. 

All these assumptions are indeed indispensable in 
order to explain the material results which exist after 
the seance has terminated, and are attested to by 
the savants of Naples, of Turin, and elsewhere — the 
furniture topsy-turvy, objects broken, marks on the 
registering instruments, etc.^ 

This ingenious hypothesis has in its favor several 
accounts of collective hallucinations, such as those 
produced by the Hindu fakirs, with the aid of the 
tropical sun, or of powerful fumigations acting upon 
the senses of those around them.^ But the hypothesis 

* For details of these experiments, see the Report of Professor 
Bottazzi, and that of the Psychological Institute of Paris, whose 
Reports are summarized in Eusapia Palladino and Her Phenomena, 
pp. 109-18 and 129-34, respectively. 

2 Personally, I greatly doubt whether hallucination of this kind 
takes place at all at these performances. I am inclined, on the 
contrary, to believe that they are all the result of trickery (see 
my booklet Hindu Magic, in which I explain the tricks of the 
native conjurers — the mango-tree trick, the basket trick, the dry- 
sands tricks, the rope trick, voluntary interment, snake-charming, 
etc.) . I made a careful search for the evidence bearing upon this 
question of hallucination in their performances when writing The 
Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism, and came to the deliberate 
conclusion that there was practically no first-hand evidence that 

255 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

cannot be made to apply in such a case as that quoted. 
It extends the power of hypnotism beyond all known 
limits, and contradicts the knowledge possessed by 
those who have attended seances — that they have 
constantly remained in their natural mental condition, 
perfect masters of themselves and in full posses- 
sion of their critical faculties and reason. A power of 
fascination so absolute that it can enthrall the most 
thoughtful savants unknowingly, and without leaving 
behind it the least retrospective suspicion, would 
hardly be less extraordinary than the reality of the 
phenomena which this hypothesis has been advanced 
to repudiate. Further, to justify such a theory, it 
would be necessary to suppose that the investigators 
who escaped this magic influence, and who, preserv- 
ing their sang froid in the seances, while all their 
neighbors were subjugated to it, would be able to 
relate to us afterward what had really occurred. 
But the case has not yet been presented. Are we to 
conclude that no one has escaped the witchery of 
Eusapia at these good seances ? And if so, how can 
one ever verify that? The hypothesis of a universal 
illusion has the fault of destroying itself; and with 
that I leave it to its fate ! 

such hallucinations existed, but much evidence that their per- 
formances were all the result of trickery. {Loc. cit., pp. 386-93.) 
I have had no reason to change my belief since the above was 
written. On the contrary, I am becoming more and more cer- 
tain that hallucination plays almost no part in spiritistic seances; 
while trickery pure and simple plays a very large part. In the 
case of Eusapia the only difference is that the phenomena happen 
to be genuine, but they are none the less objective for all that. — Tr. 

256 



^M 


^^^2 


H 


SSI 


P 


■ 


■ 


^H 


W 


I^^T" ^ ^y 


w^^^ 


i^ 


^g 


■ 


^M 


r 


'"^'^sB^BB 


r 


' I' 


s 


■ 


W^^f 


%^^' 




■#ig^g^ 


-k Af^^S^I 


^H 


H 


m 






yil^^^g^^ 




11 


1 


1 


v7^ 






1 


9 





A SPIRIT FACE 

(Impression in. clay of a head made by^"an invisible" at one of Mme. Palla- 

dino's seances.) 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

5. Composite Theory. — If the preceding explanations 
considered separately cannot account in a satisfac- 
tory manner for the documents existing in favor of the 
Palladino phenomena, might it not suffice to combine 
them, thus mutually completing one another ? Differ- 
ent tricks of Eusapia, when circumstances allow it; 
the natural charm which she exercises, and, by reason 
of which she profits, suggesting phenomena to her 
sitters which they are thus made to see ; an excusable 
percentage of exaggeration on their part; finally, an 
accumulation of happy chances — all this united — • 
would it not explain the miracles attributed to her 
without it being necessary to have recourse to super- 
normal causes which run counter to common sense as 
much as to orthodox science? Theoretically, it is 
possible, since all is possible; but, to speak frankly, 
I doubt it strongly. This reduction of the Palladino 
records to a simple conglomerate of natural causes 
appears to me more and more improbable as time 
goes on, and I fear that in the near future the defen- 
ders of this theory will have to admit that they have 
no case at all. 

The Revenge of Eusapia 

^^11 nefaut jurer de rienF' Without being as amus- 
ing as a comedy of De Musset's, the situation which the 
history of Eusapia has furnished us is not lacking in 
humor. . . . Twelve years ago, when this illustrious 
medium was detected in fraud at Cambridge, and 
discarded by the English savants, it appeared that the 

257 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

case had forever been settled and the question even of 
supernormal physical phenomena had been decided. 
The constant observers of Mme. Palladino — Richet, 
Ochorowicz, etc. — had strongly protested against the 
conclusions of the English Committee, that since shelj 
had tricked when all facilities had been given heril 
to do so, she must trick constantly — even when the 
desired precautions were taken to prevent her from 
doing so. They pointed out that they had detected 
this same method of fraud, and that she had practised 
it before the so-called discovery of Hodgson; they 
strongly insisted upon the advisability of making 
fresh experiments with her before arriving at any 
definite conclusion. But Myers's reconversion and 1 1 
the unaltered conviction of Lodge were powerless to 
offset the negative verdict of Hodgson. . . . And 
thus the Society for Psychical Research became more 
and more incredulous of the reality of these phenom- 
ena as time passed. An Irish savant, indeed,^ who 
had in the press a volume of spiritistic philosophy, 
based, in part, upon faculties attributed to Eusapia, 
had suspended its publication, feeling the ground 
crumbling beneath his feet. Myers himself did not 
dare to run counter to the decision so definitely arrived 
at, so that his two posthumous volumes ignored com- 
pletely the name of Palladino! In brief, the con- 
demnation of this medium appeared so thorough and 

^ W. F. Barrett, professor of physics at Dublin, to whom meta- 
psy chics is indebted, among other things, for his admirable 
historical researches and experiments with the divining-rod. 
{Proceedings, S. P. R., vol. xiii, pp. 2-282; xv, pp. 130-338.) 

258 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

so irrevocable that Professor Lehman, of Copenhagen, 
in his splendid work on superstition and sorcery, had 
no hesitation in concluding that the exposure of Cam- 
bridge was a decisive turning-point in the history of 
spiritism — a death-blow to all the phenomena of phys- 
ical mediumship, in which science must no longer 
interest herself ! 

Tempora mutantur! In spite of this excommunica- 
tion, which placed her under the ban of science, Eusa- 
pia continued to be studied by some savants more 
solicitous of the truth than of their academic reputa- 
tion. The results of their courage (and, it is necessary 
to say, of the better conditions of control and super- 
vision which the medium herself insisted upon, little 
by little) was that instead of closing their eyes 
expressly, as did the learned gentleman in the time of 
Galileo, who refused to look through his telescope 
''for fear of being convinced,'* it became from day to 
day more difficult to reject the reality of the Palladino 
phenomena by reason of the added weight of their 
testimony and of objective proof of the reality of these 
phenomena which was heaped up in their favor. The 
gradual change of opinion which was thus produced 
spread even to the Anglo-Saxon world, hitherto so 
obdurate. Mr. Barrett concluded that he could now 
publish his volume,^ so original and suggestive, with- 
out exposing himself to unjust criticism. The most 
refractory members of the Society for Psychical Re- 
search — Mr. Podmore, Mrs. Sidgwick, etc. — showed 

* On the Threshold of a New World of Thought, 1908. 
18 259 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

themselves, on their part, at least shaken in their 
radical skepticism toward the phenomena produced 
by Eusapia.^ But it was not until Mr. Carrington 
(whose unrivaled perspicacity had brought to light 
and exposed the stratagems of American mediums) 
crossed the ocean to confront the artifices of the 
Neapolitan medium that any one considered it his 
duty to investigate her phenomena at first hand and 
upon her native shore. Now, as we all know, he 
was obliged to lower his flag before her, and recog- 
nize the authenticity of her phenomena. Here, 
then, is her revenge for all the humiliations of the 
past! 

This is a turning-point in the history of scientific 
research. Is it to be lasting, or are we to expect af ! 
later reversal of belief and a return to the explana- 
tions: fraud and illusion? But why fear the future?!! 
"Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof"; and the 
present state of the question seems to me to necessi- 
tate, and even command, the acceptance of some 
supernormal hypothesis to account for these unheard- 

* See Podmore, Naturalization of the Stt^pernatural, 1908, p. 202, ' 
and Mrs. Sidgwick, in her account of the work of Morselli {Pro- 
ceedings, S. P. R., vol. xxi, pp. 516-24). Mrs. Sidgwick adds, in a 
postscript to her article, that Eusapia has been studied for the 
S. P. R. by Messrs. Feilding, Baggally, and Carrington, "all ex- 
perts in the tricks of physical mediums," and that they came 
"essentially to the same conclusions as Morselli." The Annalsm\ 
of Psychical Science announces, on its side, that Mr. Carrington 
attended, in Naples, eleven seances under conditions of strict 
control, and that he emerged therefrom completely convinced of 
the reality of the phenomena — contrary to what was generally 
expected, and to what he himself expected. 

260 



THE CASEOF EUSAPIA PAL LADING 

of facts, witnessed by so many observers, who are, 
moreover, by no means inexperienced investigators. 

SUPERNORMAL HYPOTHESES 

These are numerous. M. Morselli, to whom we owe 
one of the most recent and the most complete accounts 
yet pubHshed, . . . holds to the theory of psycho- 
dynamism: the medium has the faculty of exterior- 
izing a force capable of plastically molding, in space, 
the figures produced in her imagination ; one must join 
to this the theory of telepathy, by means of which she 
reflects the thoughts of her sitters, and one must con- 
ceive that these thoughts have the power of fashion- 
ing and modeling their own image. The plastic force, 
in other words, is exteriorized in such a manner as to 
give birth to teleplastic phantoms, or materializations 
— ^whose substance is provided by the medium, and 
whose appearance is shaped by the spectators. 

To express this in a more concrete form: (i) The 
subconscious memories of the sitter are communicated 
to Eusapia by means of telepathy, and (2) these 
thoughts, shaping themselves in the mind of the medi- 
um, print their characteristics upon the exteriorized 
force which thus gradually takes on the appearance 
of the departed spirit. 

In two words, telepathy and tele plasty. The peculiar 
power of the medium to produce physical effects, and 
particularly materializations, consists in giving an 
objective reality to the creations of her imagination, 

261 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



I 



which, in their turn, may only be the reflections of the 
thoughts of those around her. 

"That is all very complicated and hair-splitting," 
the spiritists naturally say, struck by the apparent 
simplicity and truth of their own hypothesis. Pro- 
fessor Lombroso, e.g., reproaches Morselli for his anti- 
spiritistic obstinacy, to him incredible in the face of 
the existing facts, and considers his position unten- 
able. He can see in the work of the Genoese savant 
only a state of transition, *'a bridge between the 
modern science of metapsychics and the classical 
science of psychiatry." Despite the authority of 
Lombroso, it is, it seems to me, a little hasty to foresee 
already the conversion of science to spiritism, and 
whatever may be the surprises which the future may 
hold for us, I consider that Morselli has remained 
faithful to the principles of the experimental method, 
and to a sane logic, in utilizing for his explanation 
only those forces or powers already known. ... It is 
here, indeed, that the principal line of cleavage takes 
place between the different supernormal explanations. 
All of them, in reality, pass the bounds of established 
science. But one theory is a simple extension of the 
known laws of biology, . . . whereas the other flies at 
once to new entities and to laws and causes essentially 
strange to the empirical world of science. I do not 
say that this appeal to another world may not some 
day be justified by experience; but it runs counter to 
scientific ideals to accept this theory too easily. . . . 
We are justified, therefore, in postponing our accept- 

262 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

ance of this theory of spiritism in the Palladino 
phenomena until every other theory has been ex- 
hausted. 

On the contrary, MorselH's theory is not without its 
difficulties. The defenders of ''common sense," and 
those who believe that fraud is an adequate explana- 
tion of the Palladino phenomena, would not for a 
moment tolerate any such extravagant hypothesis as 
that of psychodynamism, and would instantly con- 
demn it, in the name of that same science which Mor- 
selli is trying to defend ! But it must be remembered 
that the supernormal is not necessarily the super- 
natural. The supernormal of to-day is the normal of 
to-morrow. . . . Besides, we are far too inclined to 
charge ** fraud" when, as a matter of fact, nothing of 
the kind has been proved, and merely on general 
principles. . . . Again, we must remember that Eusa- 
pia is a hysteric, and that her seances are full of semi- 
automatic states and conditions in which she is not 
responsible for what she does. . . . Truly, this connec- 
tion of the Palladino phenomena with her abnormal 
state is no proof of their reality ; it is conceivable that 
a somnambulic personality can perform certain tricks 
more cleverly than can the normal self, because of 
the condition of hyperaesthesia and increased motor 
agility which are often found in the abnormal condi- 
tion. But, on the other hand, the fact that the mani- 
festations depend upon a special abnormal condition 
in this medium renders them, perhaps, less incredi- 
ble on that account. For the lessons of the past have 

263 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

taught us that many strange phenomena said to be 
miraculous — and believed to be miracles by some, 
fraudulent by others, because both reasoned from the 
normal state — were found to be perfectly real and nat 
ural when once the abnormal condition was granted 
"Neither miracle nor fraud," said Delboeuf, forty 
years ago, a propos of the facts of stigmatism — then 
deemed incredible, but at which no one familiar with 
psychopathology is to-day astonished. One knows 
what clear vision Delboeuf had. It would not sur 
prise me to find that his aphorism might to-day be 
applied to the phenomena of Eusapia Palladino. 

Another fact which tells in favor of the exercise of 
some unknown power as against the theory of fraud 
is that these phenomena depend upon her psycho- 
physiological conditions on the one hand, and their 
reaction upon her on the other. One knows how the 
health of this medium — her moods, the degree of 
sympathy or antipathy with which her sitters inspire 
her, etc. — influences the success of her seances. It is 
also well known how the production of phenomena 
affects her organism — causing modifications of circula- 
tion, respiration, etc., and the symptoms of profound 
fatigue by which they are followed; the violent syn- 
chronous muscular twitchings which coincide with or 
immediately precede the production of phenomena; 
the exhaustion of the mysterious powers of Eusapia 
which one observes after a certain number of seances, 
and increases with every ssance, obliging her, finally, 
to cease giving sittings in order to recuperate for 

264 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

some months, like a battery which recharges itself 
during rest until the new accumulation of force urges 
it instinctively to recommence. All this gives to the 
Palladino phenomena a fluctuating and variable 
character which hardly agrees with the hypothesis of 
fraud. Every one knows that feats of skill — like 
everything which is artificial and acquired — become, 
with practice, more easy, more sure, and more econom- 
ical in the necessary expenditure of force. Doubt- 
less a prestidigitator or an acrobat cannot feel each 
day in high spirits, but this is not known to the public, 
since practice has lent to their performances a stability 
of perfection which renders them independent of 
momentary fluctuations of health, mood, fatigue, etc. 
It is quite the contrary with Eusapia. On the other 
hand, the rapidity and capriciousness, and the discon- 
certing nature of her phenomena, explain perfectly the 
contradictory impressions left upon the spectators — 
f)rovided that they have been present at good seances, 
marked by an abundant display of supernormal facts, 
which occur in good light and in spite of the excellence 
of the control ; or at bad seances, in which the medium, 
exhausted, incapable of producing anything when 
watched closely, demands complete darkness, and 
profits by the laxity of control to supplement by 
trickery the eclipse of her powers. 

It goes without saying that these remarks do not 
pretend to impose the psychodynamic hypothesis 
upon the opponents of the supernormal explanation — 
facts alone can have that result — but simply to facili- 

265 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



41 



tate its acceptation by showing that it is not as ar- 
bitrary and as dogmatic as the simple explanation of 
fraud which is generally believed. 

To return to the theory of Morselli. This is, I believe, 
the one which responds the best to the intricacies of 
the case, and which is, at the same time, necessary and 
sufficient to cover and explain all the supernormal 
phenomena attributed to Eusapia. 

Certain of these phenomena, it is true, could be 
explained by simpler hypotheses. For example, 
luminous phenomena, observed sometimes in the 
neighborhood of the medium, might be attributed to 
certain processes of phosphorescence or electrification, 
as pathology and physiology have already shown us, 
when observing subjects who are not mediums. Again, 
the facts of simple telekinesis — levitations of the 
table, movements of objects without contact, tactile 
impressions, blows, pinches, etc. — have given birth to 
the theory of a "third arm" (pseudopodia, fiuidic 
members, etc.), owing, perhaps, to a partial disen- 
gagement of the medium's double (astral body, ''peri- 
sprit" of the medium). 

Another hypothesis is that Eusapia in the trance 
state is endowed with a marvelous rapidity of move- 
ment, rivaling that of the gnat, whose wings move 
thousands of times a second. On this theory she 
could withdraw her hand from that of the controller, 
grasp the latter on the shoulder, or give him a slap, 
and replace her hand where it was, without the con- 
troller having perceived this loss of contact — which 

266 



THE CASE OF EUSA'PIA PALLADINO 

would have lasted only about a six-thousandth of a 
second — and only appreciating it some time after the 
blow was struck by reason of the persistence of tactile 
impressions. In like manner she could in full light 
remove or break objects and return to her chair with- 
out our retinae being able to perceive this going and 
coming — a hundred times too rapid to conquer their 
inertia! This explanation of telekinesis, by simple 
tachykinesis — postulating a series of movements by 
Eusapia so rapid as to be beneath the threshold of our 
perceptions— has not as yet been proposed ; that is why 
I merely sketch it here, leaving it to the future to 
decide whether or not it is true. 

But all these hypotheses remain insufficient in face 
of the cases of materialization of hands and faces 
without physical resemblance to that of Eusapia, of 
which the Italian observers, especially, report to us so 
many examples. And unless we reject these cases, 
a priori, as too difficult to believe, we must — if we wish 
to have any theory at all consistent with the facts — 
formulate one at least as far-reaching as that of Mor- 
selli. The only modification in the theory which 
these facts seem to suggest (and would it be any 
simplification?) consists in supposing that, instead of 
the sitter transferring his memories, telepathically, to 
the medium, the medium, on the contrary, transfers 
her psychodynamic forces to the sitter. I will ex- 
plain. 

When, e. g., in Eusapia's seances Messrs. Morselli, 
Venzano, etc., saw and touched faces different from 

267 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



II 



those of Eusapia, but which could — hke those of the 
famous ''John" — be productions of her imagination, 
it is clear that these apparitions, supposed to be real, 
are sufficiently explained by the materialization of 
the medium's conception of that person. But whei 
phantoms which are objectified issue no longer froi 
Eusapia, but from the emotional complexes of the 
sitters— when one witnesses, e. g., the apparition of a' 
dead person whom Eusapia had never known, an( 
who returns to express his regret to one of the spec- 
tators — we may accept one of two possible interpre- 
tations. For Morselli these are the memories or the 
emotional complexes of the spectator, which are 
transferred to the imagination of the medium (or,|j 
more exactly, which induce telepathically their twin) , 
whence they are externalized outside the medium by 
her psychodynamic power. But it might also h^\ 
admitted that it is Eusapia who transmits her psycho- 
dynamic forces to the spectator, and he, in turn, by a 
sort of catalytic action due to the psychodynamic 
activity of the medium combines his own subjective 
emotional complexes with his own latent psycho-f' 
dynamic forces, and in this way his own complexes 
are objectified. 

It would be interesting to trace the history of the 
psychodynamic theory — of which the first scientific!' 
germs are to be found in the **psychode" of Thury 
and the ''fluid" of Gasparin (without mentioning the 
occult philosophers) — as well as to examine the elab- 
orations to which it is susceptible. . . . But, while 

268 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

this is at present impossible, I think that the facts 
themselves are now beyond dispute. 

The case of Eusapia is not unique. . . . The estab- 
lishment of her phenomena, however, casts a retrospec- 
tive corroboration upon all those historical cases of 
which we have read so much. Also, other and newer 
cases fortify that of Eusapia. . . . My colleague. 
Doctor Sidney Alrutz, whose psycho -physiological 
works are well known, guaranteeing his qualities as a 
positive and minute investigator, has written me that 
he has had the opportunity to experiment a number 
of times under excellent conditions of control with 
different non-professional mediums — ladies of good 
Swedish families — and that he has observed phe- 
nomena of telekinesis in their presence, of move- 
ments absolutely inexplicable by any known laws of 
physics and physiology. ... At Warsaw, also. Doc- 
tor Ochorowicz has discovered a new medium, pro- 
ducing physical phenomena, whom he hopes to de- 
velop in a scientific manner and who seems to promise 
results of great precision and nicety, and, at the same 
time, absolutely stupefying and passing all that has 
been related up to the present time. Taken all in all, 
it appears that there are many cases of physical me- 
diums which the future may hope to investigate, and 
it is to be hoped that it will do so, and will know how 
to separate the true from the false, and discover 
some empirical laws and formulate some less nebulous 
theory than that of psychodynamism. 

I repeat, in conclusion, that any theory, if at all 

269 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

complete, must attack the Palladino phenomena from 
a double standpoint — that of physics, inasmuch as 
they take place in the external world, are material 
entities, and hence depend upon the laws of me- 
chanics, the principle of the conservation of energy, 
etc.; and that of psychology, inasmuch as we deal 
with mental processes and endeavor to determine the 
nature, origin, etc., of the mentality with which we 
are dealing. Of these two problems, or groups of 
problems, the former should claim the attention of 
physicists and physiologists especially, while the 
second — which deals with the general question of 
psychogenesis and the identity of spirits — can only 
be dealt with in a satisfactory manner when we 
know more of psychology, normal and abnormal, 
individual and collective. 

RECENT DOCUMENTS* 

The Report of M. Courtier 

A careful reading of this report has shown me how, 
without appearing to be so, it is, at basis, humiliating 
for normal explanations (fraud, hallucination, etc.). 
This does not appear at first sight, because of the 
singular manner in which it is expressed. Instead of 
following the usual simple method (which would have 

* (June, 19 lo.) Since the preceding pages were written, eigh- 
teen months ago, the question of the physical phenomena has been 
enriched by many new observations — which further confirm me in 
my belief as to the authenticity of the Palladino phenomena. I 
will summarize them rapidly. 

270 




A TABLE LEVITATION 

(At one of Eusapia Palladino's seances before the French Psychological Insti- 
tute. Both of Eusapia's feet can be seen on the floor, and her right hand on the 
top of the head of her right-hand controller. His left hand is across both her 
knees. Her left hand is invisible in the photograph, but is held by M. Courtier, who 
sits to her left.) 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

consisted in relating each seance, discussing the 
notable phenomena in it, and the conditions under 
which they were produced, in such a manner as to 
show how, and to what extent, they were explicable 
by known causes), M. Courtier adopted a plan much 
cleverer, but one which confuses the reader and 
plunges him into complete uncertainty. The first 
chapters bury him under an avalanche of facts, upon 
the evidential nature of which the reporter refrains 
from all judgment. We are then led into diverse re- 
searches in physics and physiology, interesting, it is 
true, but which lead you to no firm conclusion as to 
the nature of the Palladino phenomena themselves. 
Finally, the last chapter gives us a complete summary 
of all the methods of fraud resorted to by Eusapia, 
quoting several specific seances, and this leaves in the 
mind of the reader, as a last impression, the suspicion 
that all the prodigies of Eusapia might have been 
produced by trickery. 

The discussion of this report at a special session of 
the Psychological Institute seems to have been con- 
ducted with the same determination not to com- 
promise themselves, and the same determination to 
prevent the public from gathering any precise opinion 
as to the reality or the non-reality of the Palladino 
phenomena. There was in Geneva, in my childhood, 
an excellent man, devoted to the welfare of the com- 
munity, but so timorous and desirous of avoiding all 
extremes that, in the popular vote, where the citizens 
had decided to "yes" or *'no" a project of law, he 

271 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

would never express his views clearly, but placed in 
the ballot-box, they said, a ballot carrying the two 
contrary votes, which earned for him the surname of 
M. "Nouin.'' This memory returns to me as I read 
the report of the savants of the Psychological In- 
stitute. ''Yes" or "No," the reader demands of 
them. Have you proved the genuineness of the 
phenomena of Eusapia Palladino under perfect con- 
ditions of control and surveillance? Nouin, they re- 
ply, in chorus. Yes, we have seen numerous facts of 
this character, but as for being scientifically certain 
of them. No! "I have seen," said the president, 
"levitations of objects ^ without being able to per- 
ceive the mechanism by means of which the levita- 
tions were produced and without being able to detect 
fraud, for which I was constantly on the lookout. 
But none of these experiences gave me a 'scientific 
certitude ' of these phenomena. The methods of con- 
trol and of registration which we established did not 
give me this certainty — this scientific demonstration." 
It would be impossible to find a better case of taking 
away with the one hand what the other hand gives! 
But, despite this subtlety of language — since it is evi- 
dent that the president and his colleagues did not cease 
to concentrate their attention and exercise their sagac- 
ity in an attempt to discover all possible or imagina- 
ble methods of fraud — it is evident that this report 
constitutes a brilliant and decisive witness in favor of 

^ Report of the Institut General Psychologique, Paris, 1908, 
p. 567. 

272 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

the non-explicability of the Eusapian phenomena by 
fraud — or by science as it exists to-day — which is 
virtually the same as affirming their supernormal 
authenticity. 

If not, why not say so clearly ? In reflecting upon 
this matter I believe that I have divined the real 
reasons for this reserve, and I no longer doubt that the 
true conclusion of the report of the General Psycho- 
logical Institute is one which can only be arrived at by 
reading between the lines, and ought to be formulated 
thus: The undersigned, Messrs. D'Arsonval, Ballet, 
Bergson, Branly, (the late) P. Curie, Mme. Curie, etc. 
— all physicists, physiologists, and psychologists of 
excellent standing — declare that they have witnessed 
many times, in the presence of Eusapia, phenomena of 
levitation, etc., perfectly controlled and explainable 
by no means known to them. But as they feel the 
social responsibilities which their high positions im- 
pose upon them, they do not desire to run the risk of 
encouraging superstition — always so ready to run 
wild — by appearing to give the indorsement of official 
science to a species of facts which have too often been 
exploited by the very lowest strata of society. That is 
why, while recognizing the reality of the facts, they 
afRrm so positively that these facts have no * ' scientific 
certitude." (This formula combines all the advan- 
tages without any of the disadvantages ; it conveys the 
impression to the public that the facts in question have 
no "scientific certitude"; on the other hand, it is 
none the less true that it admits that the savants 

273 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



I 



have recognized the inexplicable character of these 
facts.) 

The Researches of Mr. Carrington * 

The researches of Carrington arrived just in time to 
complete, in a most happy fashion, those of the savants 
of the Psychological Institute. As a matter of fact, 
these latter, although conducted by physicists and 
physiologists of the first rank, are always open to the 
classical objection that they were not prestidigitators, 
and that all their science does not qualify them to 
detect the most simple tricks. One cannot raise this 
objection against Mr. Carrington and his two col- 
leagues — Messrs. Baggally and Feilding. It is worth 
while quoting a page from the report of these gentle- 
men: 



( ( 



f 



Mr. Baggally is ... an amateur conjurer and i 
exceptionally well posted on all the tricks and devices 
resorted to by fraudulent mediums. Most of them 
he can perform himself. He has been constantly 
investigating the subject for more than thirty-five 
years, and during all that time he has never witnessed a 

^ I think I should say that, while Professor Flournoy gives me 
the chief credit for these experiments, this is equally due to 
Messrs. Feilding and Baggally; the task of establishing the facts 
was joint, and the original report was joint — being undertaken 
on behalf of the S. P. R. The text refers for the most part to 
my book on Eusapia. The American seances were, of course, in 
no way connected with the S. P. R., or either of my former col- 
leagues — being merely an attempt on my part to interest the 
American savants in her phenomena. — Tr. 

274 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

single genuine physical phenomenon — with the excep- 
tion, perhaps, of a few occurring at a previous seance 
of Eusapia which he had attended some years before. 
Throughout his investigations he had invariably 
detected fraud, and nothing but fraud. I think it is 
safe to say, therefore, that a man of his caHber, armed 
as he was with his past knowledge of mediums' his- 
tories and their methods, would not be likely to be 
taken in by a few simple tricks, such as the substitu- 
tion of hands or feet, which Eusapia occasionally 
practises ! 

"Mr. Feilding, in his position as honorary secretary 
of the Society for Psychical Research, is constantly 
investigating cases of all kinds, and delights especially 
in running down cases of 'poltergeists,' physical phe- 
nomena, etc. He has an excellent and keen judg- 
ment in all such investigations. He has been engaged 
in this work, on and off, for some ten years, but during 
all that time he has never seen one physical phenomenon 
which appeared to him to he conclusively proved — with 
the exception of certain phenomena which, again, had 
occurred in Eusapia' s presence at a previous seance 
attended by him in Paris. We may well suppose, 
therefore, that Mr. Feilding, also, was quite enabled to 
detect fraud had such existed, and was not at all likely 
to be taken in by the simple process of substitution 
which he, in common with all of us, well knew existed. 

*'As for myself [H. Carrington], I can but say that, 
during twelve years' continued investigations of the 
physical phenomena of spiritualism, during which 
19 27s 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

period I have sat many score, if not hundreds of times, 
with mediums, and traveled many hundreds of miles 
in order to see genuine physical phenomena if such 
existed, I had invariably been disappointed, and 
until I had attended my first seance with Eusapia 
had never seen one single manifestation of the physical 
order which I could consider genuine. On the contrary, , 
I had always detected fraud, and, being an amateur 
conjurer myself, was enabled in nearly every instance 
to detect the modus operandi of the trick usually the 
first time I saw it. In my Physical Phenomena of 
Spiritualism I devoted more than three hundred pages 
to the psychology of deception and to a detailed 
exposure of the tricks and devices of fraudulent 
mediumship."* 

These three gentlemen — who could pass for know- 
ing something of prestidigitation and of mediumistic 
trickery — held in Naples, in November and December, 
1908, eleven seances with Eusapia, from which they 
emerged absolutely convinced of the genuineness of 
the Palladino phenomena — or, if one prefers it, of their 
non-explicability by fraud. Certainly, one can always 
ask whether Eusapia does not simply help herself by 
methods of fraud so far unknown, and of which neither 
savants nor prestidigitators have any knowledge, and 
of the nature of which they have not the slightest 

^ Hereward Carrington, Eusapia Palladino and Her Phenomena, 
pp. 1 53-54. [It should be noted that this quotation is from my book* 
and not from our joint report, as Professor Flournoy says. — Tr.] 

276 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

suspicion. Perhaps! Perhaps, also, that which we 
call undetected fraud is the manifestation of a very 
rare faculty, of so rare a character, in fact, that 
Carrington and his colleagues had never met with any 
trace of it in the course of their long years of research, 
but none the less real for that. But in adopting this 
latter hypothesis, one prevents one's self from discover- 
ing anything new, for one bars the road to further 
progress when one concludes a priori that trickery 
alone is the true explanation. Mr. Carrington does 
not hold to this theory, in Eusapia's case, of undis- 
covered modes of trickery, and proceeds to examine 
the various explanatory theories so far advanced, and 
does not hesitate, for his part, to adopt the spiritistic 
interpretation as being the only one which adequately 
explains all the types of phenomena. . . . The case 
which Mr, Carrington quotes as a typical example of 
the existing facts, proving to him the intervention of 
discarnate spirits, is the following. It is the case of a 
materialized apparition, in one of Eusapia's seances, 
of a departed lady with whom one of the sitters had 
had a little misunderstanding, and who returned to 
make apologies. Here is the incident in question, 
which M. Venzano narrates, he himself being the hero: 

"In spite of the dimness of the light I could dis- 
tinctly see Madam Palladino and my fellow-sitters. 
Suddenly I perceived that behind me was a form, 
fairly tall, which was leaning its head upon my left 
shoulder and sobbing violently, so that those present 

277 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

could hear the sobs; it kissed me repeatedly. I 
clearly perceived the outlines of this face, which 
touched my own, and I felt the very fine and abundant 
hair in contact with my left cheek, so that I could be 
quite sure it was a woman. The table then began to 
move, and by typtology gave the name of a close 
family connection who was known to no one present 
except myself. She had died some time before, and, 
on account of incompatibility of temperament, there 
had been serious disagreements between us. I was so 
far from expecting this typtological response that I at 
first thought this was a case of coincidence of name; 
but while I was mentally forming this reflection I felt 
a mouth, with warm breath, touch my left ear and 
whisper, in a low voice in Genoese dialect, a succession 
of sentences, the murmur of which was audible to the 
sitters. These sentences were broken by bursts of 
weeping, and their gist was to repeatedly implore 
pardon for injuries done to me, with a fullness of detail 
connected with family affairs which could only be 
known to the person in question. The phenomenon 
was so real that I felt impelled to reply to the excuses 
offered me with expressions of affection, and to ask 
pardon in my turn if any resentment of the wrongs 
referred to had been excessive. But I had scarcely 
uttered the first syllables when two hands, with ex- 
quisite delicacy, applied themselves to my lips and 
prevented my continuing. The form then said to me, 
'Thank you/ embraced me, kissed me, and disap- 
peared." 

278 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

For Mr. Carrington it was, in this case, the dead 
lady herself who, materializing by means of the psy- 
chic force or vitality of the medium, came to effect this 
scene of reconciliation. In my estimation, it is evi- 
dent, on the contrary, that it is merely the objectified 
emotional complex existing within the subconscious- 
ness of M. Venzano. The difficulty of comprehending 
how a psychic complex foreign to Eusapia can ob- 
jectify itself and be materialized by the aid of the 
mysterious forces of this medium is the same on every 
theory, whether it emanates from a discarnate or an 
incarnate individual; but, scientifically, the second is 
infinitely more simple, since it appeals only to in- 
dividual consciousness already known and empirically 
established. It is satisfactorily explained when one 
recalls the familiar processes of the subliminal which 
the latent memory of M. Venzano had retained of this 
dead person, and, though confused, these were revived, 
with all the associated memories of the departed, by 
reason of the dramatic setting of the seance. These 
probably existed, helter-skelter, in marginal regions 
of consciousness, and objectified themselves in the pa- 
thetic scene of reconciliation. M. Venzano does not tell 
us — as he would scarcely have failed to do were it the 
case — that the Genoese dialect of the returning spirit 
and the details of the family history which she told 
him exceeded his own stock of memories; or where 
his imagination extended the veridical elements of his 
little romance. As for the typtological automatisms, 
by which his hands (which probably rested on the 

279 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

table, according to the usual custom) revealed the 
name of the departed, this further corroborates the 
supposition that we are dealing with an emotional 
complex in the subconsciousness of M. Venzano. 

On the contrary, the spiritistic explanation necessi- 
tates, as Mr. Carrington himself recognizes, a number 
of preliminary hypotheses, which he enumerates as 
follows : '* I. That consciousness exists after the disso- 
lution of the organism. 2. That it preserves its per- 
sonal identity, including memory. 3. That this con- 
sciousness ('soul') inhabits a body of the same shape 
as our physical body. 4. That it is constantly about 
us — in our surroundings — capable of exercising certain 
functions to us deemed supernormal, such as tele- 
pathy, clairvoyance, etc. 5. That it is normally in- 
visible to us, but may become visible under certain 
conditions as yet unknown to one or more individ- 
uals and can thus more or less directly communicate 
with them. 6. That such an intelligence can only act 
on the material world through some intermediary and 
not directly — either upon a nervous mechanism (prob- 
ably indirectly) or upon inert matter (almost certainly 
indirectly) — through some semi-fiuidic intermediary. 
Only by means of this etheric or vital intermediary is 
mind enabled to act upon matter and the material 
world." ^ 

Now, all these accessory (or rather fundamental) 

hypotheses may be true in themselves, and for my 

part I have no philosophic objection to the first two; 

^ Eusapia Palladino and Her Phenomena, p. 293. 

280 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

but still, not one of them has up to the present been 
scientifically proved, so that it is contrary to the experi- 
mental method to admit an explanation so laden with 
arbitrary suppositions. I must again emphasize the 
fact that I do not speak of the physical phenomena of 
materialization, which remains equally supernormal 
and enigmatical on either theory, but of the mental 
phenomena which accompany it, and which one need 
not attribute to a discarnate personality, as they are 
easily explained by known psychological processes.^ 
I may add that while reviewing the other cases of 
materialization published by M. Venzano, and in a 
general way all those which I have been able to find 
on the subject of Eusapia, I have encountered no 
exceptions to this rule; all were easily explained 
(from the point of view of psychology, and setting 
aside the difficulty of comprehending the physical 
phenomenon of materialization) by the activity of the 
emotional complexes of some of the spectators — giving 
birth, in their subconscious imagination, to a dramatic 
reconstruction of their personality. In those numer- 
ous cases where the interested spectator declares that 

^ Professor Flournoy speaks of my theory as containing many 
arbitrary suppositions, etc., but I may reply, in turn, that the 
psychodynamic hypothesis, which I examined in detail and re- 
jected as insufficient in my book, is one huge assumption; and if 
we take into account the physical as well as the psychological 
phenomena of materialization I think that my theory is by no 
means more complicated or more fully assumed than the other. 
See my two chapters containing a review of theories, loc. cit., pp. 
240-301, and especially pp. 288-300, and the final chapter, " Bio- 
logical and Psychological Considerations." — Tr. 

281 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

he had not expected such an apparition in the least, 
that he had not thought of this person for a long time, 
that nothing was further from his thoughts than this 
person, etc., it shows simply that the quiescent con- 
dition of the complex facilitates the emergence, its 
exteriorization and transmission to the medium, or 
renders this transmission more favorable. 

It is hardly necessary to add that this difference of 
theoretical interpretation between Mr. Carrington and 
myself does not in the least diminish the value which 
I attach to his researches; and that, in particular, I 
hold his report on Eusapia to be the most valuable 
contribution to the subject in the whole history of the 
supernormal, and one which pleads the most power- 
fully in favor of the authenticity of the Palladino 
phenomena. 

Professor Miinsterberg's ''Expose" 

In the autumn of 1909 Mr. Carrington brought 
Eusapia Palladino to America, in the hope of definitely 
establishing the authenticity of the phenomena before 
the savants of the United States. The attempt seems 
to have failed completely.^ Whether Eusapia was too 

^ It would take a great deal of space to explain the causes of this 
apparent failure — more apparent than real. I will only state that 
the first twenty seances or so given by Eusapia in this country 
were comparatively good ones, and at these but little fraud was 
ever detected. I am convinced that it did not exist. At the 
later seances, which took place at Columbia University and at the 
house of Professor Lord, much fraud was detected, and, indeed, 
Eusapia could produce so few phenomena, and phenomena of so 
dubious a nature, that one can hardly blame the investigators 

282 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

fatigued, suffering from the effects of change of cHmate, 
or whether her powers had really declined, or whatever 
the cause, she did not furnish any convincing phenom- 
ena to the American savants, and they, like those of 
Cambridge in 1895, found in her only fraud and dis- 
simulation. But since no full account of these seances 
has yet been published, it is difficult to know exactly 
what happened there. 

Among the rare information to which we are re- 
duced for the moment, that which has made the most 
sensation is the article, as clever as amusing, published 
in a popular magazine by Professor Miinsterberg, of 
Harvard,* well known as an invincible enemy of "psy- 
chical research.'* Professor Miinsterberg considers 
that all the phenomena produced in the presence of 
Eusapia are fraudulent. He relates in a fascinating 
manner how in a dark seance, where he was present, 
a spectator, lying on the floor near the chair of the 
medium, the better to observe her, caught her bare 
heel at the very moment she was reaching her leg 

for their conclusions. This was due to the fact that Eusapia was 
completely tired out and exhausted as the result of the numerous 
seances given by her. And, as Professor Flournoy points out, 
when this happens no convincing phenomena are obtained with 
this medium, but, on the contrary, much fraud invariably is prac- 
tised in an attempt to reproduce the phenomena which fail to ap- 
pear. My conclusions on these points are precisely similar to those 
of Professor Flournoy, who has, in my estimation, taken a remark- 
ably clear and philosophical view of her case in this volume. — Tr. 
^ H. Miinsterberg, "My Friends the Spiritualists," Metropoli- 
tan Magazine, February, 19 10. For other criticisms of this article 
by Miinsterberg, see that of Hyslop, " Eusapia Palladino," Journal, 
American S. P. R., vol. iv, April, 19 10, p. 169, etc. 

283 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

behind her in order to obtain possession of a stool. ^ 
This Hberation of a foot, resorted to by Eusapia for 
twenty years past, when permitted, would prove 
simply that Professor Miinsterberg (as he says with 
praiseworthy frankness in the course of his article) 
was a novice at this sort of investigation, as were his 
companions, since they were content with a seance 
taking place in complete darkness, and did not know 
how to control the medium properly. This classical 
example of fraud on the part of Eusapia does not in 
the least weaken the evidence for those phenomena 
positively established by observers more familiar with 
the necessary precautions and in good light. 

But what is still more curious in the attack of Pro- 
fessor Miinsterberg, and what gives it a real value, is 
the astonishing fact that in the early part of his article 
he is willing to grant supernormal faculties in Eusapia ; 
when examined closely one finds that he is favorably 
disposed to them. Yet in this article the author has 

^ This is but one of the many statements contained in Profess- 
or Miinsterberg 's article which is pure fiction. I have in my 
possession a letter from the gentleman who grasped Eusapia's 
heel on this historic occasion, and he states that he is not at all 
sure that her heel was bare ! As a matter of fact, it was not. The 
shorthand report of this seance shows, further, that Professor 
Miinsterberg was repeatedly touched, as though by a hand, when 
he was holding both the medium's hands in his, and when one leg 
was resting across his knees, the other leg being held by the oppo- 
site controller. It would, however, take too long to point out all 
the inaccuracies and fictions contained in the various "exposes" 
written on Eusapia during her visit here. When the full reports 
of these seances are published, these will be apparent. Mean- 
while, as "Truth is the daughter of Time and not of Authority," 
I feel that I can afford to bide my time in silence. — Tr. 

284 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

again published his disHke for these phenomena — 
which he considers irreconcilable with his system of 
philosophy, and the reality of which would seem to 
him to carry a mortal blow to ''science" such as he 
conceives it. His animus, indeed, does not allow him 
to be a faithful and conscientious observer, and, at the 
climax of his article, he is forced in spite of himself to 
favor the hypothesis which he is fighting. Indeed, the 
astonishing incidents which he records, and which he 
explains by the supposition of secret artifices on the 
part of Eusapia (hooks on her shoes, the use of a 
bellows, tubes to blow out the curtains, etc.), are the 
exact repetition, and at the same time a splendid 
confirmation, of those numerous occasions when in 
Europe these phenomena have been observed by 
others who have taken all necessary precautions to 
exclude absolutely all tricks of the kind. 

At the same time Miinsterberg tells us that imme- 
diately before the affair of the heel, "John " (Eusapia's 
control) ''touched me distinctly on the hip, then on 
the arm, and then finally touched me on the neck; I 
felt perfectly the hand and the fingers, which was far 
from agreeable y And as at the time he was control- 
ling the hands of Eusapia, and also one foot, he con- 
tends that she touched him with the other foot, with- 
out in any way betraying the subterfuge by any 
movement of the rest of her body. Superficially 
this explanation appears simple when one considers 
the dislocations and distortions which clowns are in the 
habit of making. However, when we seek to repre- 

28s 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

sent these things in concrete form (this movement by 
Eusapia, in the position she relatively occupied to 
Miinsterberg, according to his account of this incident) , 
we encounter such anatomico-physiological impossi- 
bilities ^ that one wonders at what point the operation 
of a similar feat of strength might pass as being more 
admissible or less supernormal than the production of 
an ectoplasm. In short, the ''expose" of Miinster- 
berg is full of details truly incredible, and incompatible 
with his own earlier views. On the contrary, it agrees 
marvelously with the earlier observations upon which 
rests the psychodynamic hypothesis, so that the ques- 
tion remains open whether the pretended fraud, 
reported with so much gusto by the illustrious pro- 
fessor, was really a fraud, or if this **heel" which 
was seized was not perhaps in reality a materiali- 
zation ! 

It is said that other American investigators who 
have seriously studied her case have also met with 
fraud and trickery, simulated trance, and no trace of 

* In a recent article Dr. Stanley L. Krebs — who does not admit 
the existence of supernormal powers in Eusapia — shows that, in 
order to correspond with the description of M. Miinsterberg, and 
similar explanations, it would be necessary for Eusapia's leg to be 
articulated at the knee, upon a motionless hip, making a rotation 
of about 135°, as well as an elongation of almost double its length, 
of an incredible contortion, to get her leg onto the table, and, 
finally, a transformation of her foot into a hand which grasped 
him between the thumb and fingers! M. Krebs, who attended 
two seances with Eusapia, asserts that he has discovered her true 
methods, and has explained them to us in his booklet Trick 
Methods of Eusapia Palladino. See also Krebs, Journal, Ameri- 
can S. P. R., vol. iv, p. 337. 

286 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

true hysteria.^ The two latter assertions are contrary 
to all those medical observations of Eusapia made by 
the Italian psychiatrists (Morselli, Lombroso, etc.). 
But they do not weaken it greatly; for Eusapia's 
increasing age may have brought with it the cure of 
her hysteria, and at the same time the loss of her 
telekinetic faculties. The poor woman is now reduced 
largely to the role of sustaining her former reputation 
and of continuing to earn her living by giving seances. 
The possibility exists, nevertheless, that the instinc- 
tive prejudice of the savants of the New World against 
physical phenomena, on account of the extent of 
fraudulent mediumship there, and their very natural 
desire to catch Eusapia in fraud, have rendered them 
insensible to the supernormal phenomena which she 
can still produce. . . . This supposition appears to 
me at least as plausible as that of a universal stupidity 
among the numerous observers of the Old World who 
stand for the authenticity of her phenomena. Be- 

* This is easily explained. At the seances held in Columbia 
University Eusapia would not allow herself to pass into trance 
simply because of her apprehension that her investigators — all of 
them novices in psychic investigation — would not know how to 
treat her while she was in that condition. In this she was, I 
think, more or less justified. But as all the striking phenomena 
take place in the trance state, it is not surprising that the investi- 
gators should remain skeptical as to the reality of her facts, or fail 
to be convinced by them. As to the trance state, this probably 
did not exist at these seances simply because it was inhibited by 
Eusapia. In numerous earlier seances, which were conducted by 
myself, the trance state nearly always supervened, because Eusa- 
pia had confidence in my ability to manage her while in that con- 
dition. I think this fully explains the apparent contradiction, 
which is thus shown to be no contradiction at all. — Tr. 

287 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

tween these two alternatives the future will decide- 
or will not decide ! 

New Personal Observations 

At about the same time that these Palladino ex- 
periments were in progress, I had an opportunity to 
assist at several psychic investigations which, while 
they do not concern Eusapia, seem to me to confirm 
her phenomena very strongly. 

I. There is first the case of Mile. Tomczyk, about 
whom Ochorowicz has written so many astounding 
articles, and with whom he wished to procure for me 
five seances in the spring of 1909. The first seance, 
which took place at Paris, left me in no doubt as 
to the reality of simple telekinesis. The conditions 
were excellent. It was March 26, at 5 p.m., and, in spite 
of the fact that the curtains of the window were half 
lowered, the light of day fully sufficed. We were 
only four, including the medium, around a little table, 
on which was placed a large letter-weight, which Mile. 
Tomczyk forced down, after several trials, as far as 
eighty grams — and a ball of celluloid, which she caused 
to jump to and fro and to go and come in various 
directions, etc. There was always a distance of 
several centimeters between her fingers and the object 
moved. These are the bare facts, the details of which 
one tannot either remember or describe afterward in 
exact detail; but what I remember perfectly is that 
at the moment when an object was moved there was 

288 



II 



THE CASE OF E U S A P I A P A L L A D I \ O 

no mechanical attachment of any kind, such as threads, 
hairs, etc., for which I was on the constant lookout. 
I also examined carefully the fingers of the medium 
several times during the course of the s6ance. To me 
it appeared impossible to explain the phenomena by 
supposing that any hidden mechanism was producing 
them, since the relative position of her hands to the 
objects, and their movements, disproved this. The 
objects appeared to be drawn by an unknown force, 
variable in intensity and direction, but impossible to 
imitate in any way by needles or threads, flexible or 
rigid. 

Upon his departure from Paris with his medium, 
at the beginning of May, Doctor Ochorowicz desired 
to call at Geneva, and hold there a series of seances, to 
which he invited, besides myself. Professors ClaparMe, 
Cellerier, Batelli, and my son. Unfortunately, ex- 
hausted by the week of experiments which she had 
undergone at the "Great Capital," Mile. Tomczyk 
was not at her best, and did not fulfil our expectations. 
At three seances, where we were all present, she suc- 
ceeded, with great difficulty and after many fruitless 
attempts, in moving small objects without contact, 
but in so poor a light that it was often necessary to 
open our eyes wide to assure ourselves that we were 
not the subjects of an illusion. Besides that, the 
medium desired to make other experiments, which 
were manifestly purely fraudulent. Altogether, our 
impressions were divided; Professor Batelli was of the 
opinion that all the movements of objects at a dis- 

289 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

tance could be explained by the employment either of 
a hair or of a thread held between the hands of the 
medium, or of a rigid body, too fine to be seen, coming 
from her corsage, and with which, while leaning over, 
she could push the objects on the table. My other 
colleagues and myself, while recognizing that this 
hypothesis would suffice to explain certain facts, felt 
that we had assisted at the production of some 
phenomena very difficult to explain by such mechani- 
cal devices, and appearing to indicate the existence of 
other forces, as yet unknown. 

Mile. Tomczyk, who was always embarrassed by the 
presence of several sitters, asked to give me a special 
seance, in which she repeated for me the same experi- 
ments — movements of small objects on the table under 
my eyes, etc., and in much better light. This seance, 
without being as good throughout as thaf which I had 
attended in Paris, at least enabled me to convince my- 
self afresh, and with complete certainty, of the reality 
of several telekinetic phenomena, which were pro- 
duced under conditions excluding, in my judgment, 
the employment of mechanical apparatus of any kind 
or any known trick. 

To sum up: without pronouncing upon the facts 
and theories which Dr. Ochorowicz has published on 
the subject of Mile. Tomczyk,^ I believe I have estab- 
lished in the presence of this medium, among doubtful 

* See Annals of Psychical Science, April-June, 1909, pp. 271- 
84; July - September, 1909, pp. 333-99; October - December. 
1909, pp. 515-33, etc., for accounts of this medium. — Tr. 

290 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

or manifestly fraudulent facts, very evident telekinetic 
phenomena, implying some faculty apparently super- 
normal, and of the same character as those of Eusapia, 
which therefore support this latter by retrospective 
corroboration. 

2 . At the Sixth Psychological Congress, which was 
held in Geneva in 1909, Professor Alrutz brought 
with him a small instrument of his own invention, by 
means of which he believes he has proved among 
persons of a peculiar temperament motor faculties 
whose existence is, as yet, absolutely unsuspected 
by orthodox physiologists. Professor Alrutz invited 
me to assist in two seances, in which we experi- 
mented upon some of the feminine members of the 
Congress who desired to try it. The first, in which the 
subject was Mme. Glika, yielded nothing conclusive. 
But at the second, at which Professor Alrutz attempt- 
ed to increase the force by adding two other members 
of the Congress (strangers, who had appeared to him 
to possess suitable temperaments), it succeeded fully, 
and I was able to prove conclusively, after three trials, 
and under conditions precluding all possibility of 
fraud or illusion, that the will of these ladies concen- 
trated upon a certain material object, with a desire to 
produce a movement of it, ended by producing this 
movement, as if by means of a fluid or an invisible 
force obeying their mental command. 

This paradoxical phenomenon, which is of precisely 
the same order and almost of the same intensity as 
20 291 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

the telekinetic phenomena in the case of Eusapia . . . 
is, in my eyes, a powerful confirmation of these latter. 
I can no longer have any doubt that we are in her 
case in the presence of a faculty whose existence will 
soon be definitely established by experiments con- 
ducted along the same lines as those inaugurated by 
Professor Alrutz. 

3. In February, 19 10, M. Claparede invited to 
Geneva the celebrated medium Carancini, on account 
of some interesting reports rendered by an eye-witness 
of his exploits in Rome. Unfortunately, after nine 
seances, held in the laboratory of the University, the 
results were as unfavorable as possible to this medium, 
whose phenomena appeared to us manifestly fraudu- 
lent, and his trance itself most suspicious. . . . M. 
Claparede's remarkable article on this medium's 
seances renders further discussion on my part unnec- 
essary. 

I contend, however, that the failure of this medium 
has indirectly furnished me with a new argument in 
favor of the reality of the Palladino phenomena, it 
being that, under conditions of light and perfect con- 
trol of all four members, in which I have seen inex- 
plicable facts produced in the seances of Eusapia, 
there is nothing at all produced in the case of Caran- 
cini. That has confirmed me in my belief that the 
true Palladino phenomena cannot be imitated by 
trickery — at least by ordinary trickery, such as that 
practised by Carancini, and that Eusapia' s fraud, if 

292 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PALLADINO 

it be fraud, is in all cases of such a degree of subtlety 
and refinement that no one has as yet been able to 
show in what respect it differs from an authentically 
supernormal phenomenon.* 

CONCLUSION 

It is probable that, for science, the case of Eusapia 
will remain for a long time an undecipherable enigma 
and an apple of discord among those who occupy 
themselves with metapsychical research. 

So far as I myself am concerned, I wish to say that 

^ With this estimate I agree perfectly, and. stated in Appendix G 
of our book, Death: Its Causes and Phenomena, pp. 534-535, why 
the fraud detected in the case of Eusapia did not deter me from 
believing in her powers. My experience agrees with that of Pro- 
fessor Flournoy. Eusapia can produce genuine phenomena; she 
also tricks; and the duty of the careful and patient investigator is 
to separate the two classes of phenomena. It should be noted, in 
this connection, that Mr. Feilding, with whom I shared the Naples 
investigation, had five sittings with this medium in November, 
1 9 10, and had no difficulty in detecting fraud throughout his 
sittings. The character of the phenomena, and the degree of 
control permitted, were quite different from our former Naples 
experiments, but similar to that observed in America. (See his 
Report in Proceedings, S. P. R., vol. xxv, pp. 57-69.) Like myself, 
however, Mr. Feilding still contends that Eusapia can produce 
genuine phenomena. As for Carancini, he was brought to Eng- 
land in the summer of 1909, and studied by the S. P. R., and the 
account of his seances appeared in the Society's Journal, January, 
1 9 10, pp. 193-2 II. Nothing but fraud was discovered throughout. 
The report was written by Mr. Baggally, the third member of our 
original Naples group, who studied Eusapia with Mr. Feilding and 
myself; and he also still believes in her ability to produce genuine 
phenomena at times in spite of her fraud. From his report it is 
obvious that no phenomena whatever can be obtained by Caran- 
cini under the conditions permitted by Eusapia, in which many 
phenomena were observed by us. — Tr. 

293 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

the Palladino phenomena — strange as they appear at 
first sight, and inadmissible as they are to those who 
have never seen them, and who are not famiHar with 
the Hterature bearing upon the case — are to-day, in my 
eyes, estabHshed beyond doubt, so considerable is the 
weight of proof in their favor. The failures of the 
past and the future, the absence even of new mediums 
of an analogous kind, do not, in my judgment, suffice 
to counterbalance my personal experience — supported 
by that of other investigators more qualified than 
myself. In default of new evidence, confirming this 
case, I conclude simply that the powers of Palladino 
are being weakened or extinguished with age, and that 
cases such as hers are those rare exceptions which are 
produced perhaps but once in a generation or a cen- 
tury. But all the negative evidence could not prevail, 
in my judgment, against the mass of rich and serious 
evidence which exists in favor of the Palladino phe- 
nomena. 

Doubtless, dogma should not exist in science, and 
''all is possible " — even that the innumerable witnesses 
who guarantee the supernormal character of the phe- 
nomena may have been deceived, and were victims of 
some machination; but such a universal error would, 
in its turn, be a fact just as astonishing and incompre- 
hensible; and before admitting it "the proof would 
have to be proportioned to the strangeness of the 
facts" — proof much stronger than the simple negation 
of those who have not had the opportunity of being 
present at one of the good seances. It is not that we 

294 



THE CASE OF EUSAPIA PAL LADING 

rely, for proof, upon those seances when in darkness 
Eusapia might Hberate one of her Hmbs, or upon 
those where, better controlled, she has not been able 
to produce phenomena, but upon those very different 
cases where, irreproachably controlled and in full 
light, she has produced phenomena which savants and 
prestidigitators alike have as yet been unable to ex- 
plain or duplicate under the same conditions. There 
must be something more to neutralize the evidence of 
so many facts — some adequate theory capable of ex- 
plaining these so-called illusions — rather than a mere 
offhand dictum, unsupported by evidence and in- 
capable of actual demonstration. 

I understand perfectly, on the other hand, that 
those who have not personally attended any of the 
good seances of the Neapolitan will remain in doubt. 
They are perfectly right in opposing their prudent non 
liquet to all descriptions which, however convincing 
to the author, menace, in their eyes, the edifice of 
established science. One can never be clear, explicit, 
precise enough to take the place in their case of 
personal observation, which alone insures conviction. 
The skeptical critic is quite right in not accepting such 
facts without sufficient proof and without personal 
verification ; and were I in their place I should believe 
as they do ! Indeed, they would appear to me to be 
neglecting their duty in acting otherwise ; for each one 
of us has his role to play in the construction of the 
edifice of human knowledge. They are the necessary 
drags on the chariot of science, and their resistance, 

29s 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

by enforcing greater rigor and exactitude, is an indis- 
pensable factor to all true progress. 



Appendix to Chapter VII 

In the course of his volume Professor Flournoy 
gives a large number of cases of physical phenom- 
ena, observed or collected by himself, most of which 
were negative in their results. The following case, 
however, presents several features of interest; and 
because of its bearing on these phenomena it should, 
perhaps, be placed as an appendix to this chap- 
ter.— Tr. 

TRACES OF UNKNOWN PHYSICAL FORCES 

In the course of the years 1896-99 M. Eug. Demole 
and myself often tried to collect instances of unknown 
forces, of emanations issuing from different mediums, 
who were supposed to move tables, etc., at a distance. 
At the numerous seances of the three mediums — Mme. 
Darel, Mme. Saxo, and Mile. Smith, and at all those 
which we obtained with Mme. Pel and Mile. Dyck, we 
placed in the neighborhood of the medium very small 
objects easily displaced — a small bell, small cardboard 
boxes blackened with smoke, which would show the 
slightest touch, etc. But all this (aside from the 
photographic plates, of which I shall speak presently) 
gave us no result. We did not succeed any better in 
our attempts at spirit photography . . . though a 

296 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII 

"spirit," who was shown to Mme. Saxo, under the form 
of a great Egyptian high priest, holding a parchment 
upon which were inscribed the communications, ap- 
peared to her so clearly and with an objectivity so 
evident that she could not doubt the possibility of 
photographing it. . . . This high priest himself prom- 
ised us success, and condescended after several trials 
to tell us (always by means of messages upon his 
parchment, which Mme. Saxo read more or less freely) 
exactly how to take the photograph — in which direc- 
tion and how to focus the apparatus, etc. These 
experiments took place in a perfectly dark alcove off 
the seance-room, which Mme. Saxo entered, following 
her guide. But in spite of the fact that we followed 
with the utmost exactitude the directions given by the 
invisible through Mme. Saxo — focusing the camera 
here and there with great care — nothing was ever 
obtained upon any of our plates. 

The results were, however, different in the case of 
some plates held near the body of the medium, be- 
tween her hands, on her knees, etc. These plates 
were inclosed by their usual wooden frames, and 
enveloped in two or three thicknesses of black paper 
fastened with string. All this occurred while the 
mediums were seated at the table, which kept tipping, 
and at which they had their visions. The duration of 
the contact, or of the imposition of hands, was from 
half a minute to three-quarters of an hour. Once 
developed, with all necessary precautions, all these 
plates were found to be more or less cloudy ; that is to 

297 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

say, they gave the impression of having received a 
luminous impression not directed by an object. This 
seemed, indeed, to indicate an action due to the "forces" ■ 
or "fluids" of the medium, which influenced the sen-' 
sitive plate through its envelopes in the darkness.^ 
In a dozen cases, with Mme. Dare! and Mme. Saxo as 
mediums, the plates were found to bear special marks, 
either very light or more deeply marked, which could 
only be explained, normally, either by original defects 
in the plates, or accidents in development, or by some a 
localized action on the part of the medium of a nature 
yet unknown. Such is, at least, the very competent 
verdict of M. Demole, who took great interest in these 
photographic experiments. He says in part : 

''The photographic plates employed, which were 
always fresh and carefully examined, came from the 
house of Lamiere and Sons, in Lyons, who long before 
this had put upon the market sensitive surfaces of all 
kinds of remarkable purity and of great equality.! 
The spots on these plates after their development, 
which was effected according to the customary meth- 
ods . . . could none of them he attributed to the plates 

^ This has been observed on several occasions in the case of Eusa- 
pia Palladino, and was once seen by us in America (see my brief 
report in the Annals of Psychical Science, April- June, 1910, pp. 
314, 315; and Lombroso, After Death — What? p. 84, fig. 35). I 
suppose this is to be accounted for by the supposition of a "free 
foot," when it has repeatedly been pointed out that even had 
the medium handled the plate freely these marks could not be 
accounted for except by supposing that the body of the medium 
became in some way radioactive during the trance state! — Tr. 

298 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII 

themselves, nor to the manipulations of development, 
and they could only be the result of an action exerted 
upon the sensitive surface in the darkness by means of 
the 'fluid' of the medium." 

Upon two of these plates the fluid apparently acted 
in the manner of the X-rays, making impressions upon 
them according to the degree of protection they re- 
ceived from the wooden shutter of the box. We could 
perceive rays or parallel bars like fibers, which, however, 
do not coincide with the grain of the wood. ... In 
one case there is a white line, running across the plate 
from one end to the other, composed of a great number 
of parallel lines very close to one another, visible only 
by means of a strong magnifying glass; on the others, 
there are three very small drawings, which, on en- 
largement, reveal vaguely a monogram or a cunei- 
form inscription, which it is impossible to decipher. 
. . . What is certainly remarkable about these four 
plates is that these designs are not due to lines formed 
on the plate, which came out black on the paper, but 
are apparently formed by deposits of opaque material, 
which the light could not penetrate. Upon another 
plate, on the contrary, are to be found two black lines, 
at right angles, about one centimeter in length, 
which one would say had been traced upon the plate 
with a hard point. On another plate are shown two 
divisions, superimposed one upon the other, as if a ray 
of light had struck them, and, on reaching the plate, 
had become more active in one of its parts than in an- 

299 



I 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

other. Finally, ^ve other plates bore upon them 
round, dark spots, somewhat resembling those which 
might be produced in touching a plate with the finger ; 
or granulated vortices, recalling certain plates pub- 
lished by Baraduc {U Iconographie en Anses, Paris, 
1896). 

To sum up, all these plates seemed to be strongly 
clouded, as if they had received a luminous impression 
without the intermediary of the black chamber. Up- 
on some of them, as well as the general mistiness, 
there had assuredly been deposits of matter, forming 
opaque spots, or a molecular disaggregation, which, 
in developing, left a transparent portion; also the 
fluid acted in two directions, one upon the other. 
That is all that I can say of these plates from the 
photographic point of view. 

We were not enabled to discover any constant con- 
nection between the impressions found upon the plates 
after their development and the contents of the mes- 
sages, or the psychic condition of the medium during 
her contact with the wrapping of the plates. All that 
we were permitted to infer from these insufficient 
trials is that the mediumistic practices do not take 
place without a certain disengagement of forces or 
influences of a physical character, capable, among 
other things, of making impressions upon a photo- 
graphic surface through coverings of wood and of 
paper absolutely opaque to our eyes. There is noth- 
ing here to surprise us when we think of all the radia- 

300 



APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VII 

tions, known or unknown, which our organism can 
emit, and which vary without doubt in intensity and 
in quaHty with our mental and emotional states. 
When we realize that the slightest emotion which 
crosses the mind, the faintest dreamlike change of 
some subconscious complex, is sufficient to produce an 
electric variation, which can be detected by the gal- 
vanometer,^ we can no longer be astonished that psy- 

^As to these psychogalvanic reflexes, see the recent words of 
Feraguth, Tarchanof, Summer, Jung, Prince, Peterson, Bins- 
wanger, etc., in the Journal fiir P sychologie und Neurologie, Journal 
of Abnormal Psychology, Monatsschrift fiir Psychiatric, etc. These 
variations in the electric resistance had been explained by the 
modifications either of the capillary circulation or of the secre- 
tion of the sweat-glands in the skin of the hands in contact with 
the electrodes. The recent researches of Boris Sidis, however, 
tend to show that the immediate cause of the variations is a muscu- 
lar phenomenon — ' * all our experiments prove incontestably that 
the galvanic phenomenon is due to an electromotive force which is 
muscular in origin." See Sidis, Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 
vol. V, pp. 69 - 74. It is probable that things are more com- 
plicated than this, and that many physiological phenomena, still 
ignored, accompany the processes of motivity and of subconscious 
ideation. There is here, indeed, a wide field, as yet scarcely sur- 
veyed, in which future researchers may end by bringing to light 
what there is objective and real in the "odic force" of Reichen- 
bach, the "fluid" of the magnetizers, the "neuric force" of Bara- 
duc, the "fluid" of Eusapia, etc. (See, on this subject, among 
other recent works, the observations and experiences of Boirac, La 
Psychologic Inconnue, and of Tromelin, Le Fluide Humain, 1909.) 
We do not know, moreover, what is yet reserved for us in the study 
of the phenomena of radioactivity of living organisms. Eusapia 
Palladino has several times succeeded in discharging an electro- 
scope without contact, as Doctor Imoda repeatedly observed 
(see his article in the Annals of Psychical Science, August-Septem- 
ber, 1908). He concludes that "the radiations of radium, the 
cathodic radiations of the Crookes tube, and mediumistic radia- 
tions are fundamentally the same." — Tr. 

301 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

chic perturbations — like the passage from the state of 
normal wakefulness to the state of automatism and a 
more or less complete change of personality — should 
be accompanied by profound physiological modifica- 
tions, apt to react upon the physical atmosphere of 
the medium. But it would be going too fast to impute 
to ** spirits" material effects — photographic or other — 
which the vital processes, still so mysterious, of our 
own organism, would account for. It will be soon 
enough when we know exactly what the latter can 
produce by themselves; and we need not attribute the 
inexplicable residue of physical mediumship to the 
intervention of the discarnate or to other occult enti- 
ties. 



VIII 
SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM ' 

LETTER TO A NEOPHYTE CONVERTED FROM MATERIAL- 
ISM TO SPIRITISM 

I HAVE been most interested in the narrative you 
sent me containing an account of your conversion 
from materialism to spiritism, and I regret that your 
modesty has prevented you from making it pubHc, 
even under the veil of anonymity, for it is so vivid a 
picture of your spiritual evolution, representing in a 
picturesque and typical manner the experience of 
many others. 

Born and bred in the Roman Catholic Church, you 
did not long preserve the faith of your childhood — like 
others of the Protestant orthodoxy ! While at college, 
even, the first teachings of natural history and cos- 
mogony were fatal to them. How you tried to recon- 
cile science and theology; in vain! It was not long 

^ This chapter is written from the purely popular point of view, 
and without attention to philosophical detail. All metaphysical 
or religious doctrines are herein divided into two schools, according 
to whether they do or do not admit personal immortality — philoso- 
phy of the person and philosophy of the thing (materialism, mon» 
ism, idealism, etc.). 

303 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



I 



before the latter was completely routed, and science 
occupied the arena without an opponent. You did 
not even preserve what is generally called natural 
religion; belief in God and immortality had disap- 
peared from your soul together with the Christian 
ideas; and you soon came forward flat-footed for 
materialism — the result of reading Biichner's Force 
and Matter. From that doctrine — now out of date 
and virtually given up — you naturally passed to its 
modern, keener and more subtle equivalent — the 
evolutionary monism of Haeckel, which remained for 
you the ne plus ultra of human thought . . . until the 
evening when an event of the most striking and unex- 
pected character occurred in the course of a spiritistic 
seance to which you had been invited. 

There, in a room full of soft, mysterious shadows, 
seated at a table on which your hands were resting, 
touching those of your neighbors, you sat incredulous 
and mocking inwardly at the insipid replies rapped 
out by the table and solemnly spelled out by the 
president of the group. There was no doubt in your 
mind that this was all a stupid sham — some foolish 
pleasantry of the sitters, when suddenly the idea came 
to you to make, at. all costs, a crucial experiment! 
In an interval of silence you mentally invoked the 
revered memory of your father — dead some twenty 
years, and who certainly had never been known to 
any one in the circle. And behold, immediately— i| 
Oh, unheard-of marvel ! — the table responded ! Slowly 
and solemnly it rapped out, letter by letter, to your com- 

304 



I 




(WN^^f 



O ^o 



A 




(A-c^CAjc^t:^ (Tlr^-^-y^-^ 



>^_ y:^-,<--^^..^>>-^^^/ 



r C^rs-^C^^ fKyLiu^. 




"dr. HODGSON W 

(Give me time and I'll U. D. [understand] where you are be 



!^ 



^-^^-«-<- "^"^L^Kj 



d"^-^ 




fi-cJ^ 



y_^_^ , -^^^ ^V^ 



^-vv/v f ,,4^^ _ 



■i^-^'^rn^C^A^ f^.'*^ 



ROUGH MRS. PIPER 
help you to know your father — what advice he gave you.) 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

plete stupefaction, the name of your father, including 
one of his Christian names which you had never used 
and which you had completely forgotten. Then it 
addressed you in words of touching affection, calling 
you by the little pet name of old which your father 
loved to give you when, as a child, you played upon his 
knee. . . . How your heart beat at that moment ! . . . 
How you blessed the darkness which prevented the 
others from perceiving your emotion, and what an 
effort you made to conquer the tone of your voice, 
affecting the indifferent tone of the merely curious! 
You came forth from that seance not knowing what to 
think, shaken in your skepticism and impatient to 
resume the experience at the next seance. . . . 

Almost a year has elapsed since then, and your 
conversion is an accomplished fact. Without being a 
medium, properly so-called — in spite of the hope, 
more than once dashed, of your becoming one — you 
often obtained by means of the table, at seances 
with groups you visited, messages from beyond the 
tomb — not only from your father, but also other de- 
parted members of your family, and even from various 
illustrious personages. At the same time you plunge 
yourself in spiritistic literature, while constantly ex- 
perimenting with many mediums. As to Haeckel and 
Biichner, with all their contemporaries, you now 
despised them as much as you previously admired 
them ! Like escaping from some infernal jail, you ex- 
ult in being freed from their atmosphere ; and all your 
being expands in the joy and liberty of the true life 

305 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

at last discovered ! Eternal, grand perspectives open 
before you — of communion established with your dear 
ones; of all the spiritual certainties at last recon- 
structed, not upon the fictitious foundations of effete 
theology — of a faith full of absurd and revolting 
dogmas — but upon the unshakable rock of experi- 
mental method and scientific demonstration ! 

You deplore the fact that every one is not on the 
same vantage ground as yourself. You told me the 
other day of your great astonishment — mixed with 
pity and irritation — that after having, like yourself, 
been present at so many fine seances, and read so 
many marvelous accounts, I am not yet converted to 
spiritism, and that, on the other hand, I dare to believe 
in a future life, and cannot accept annihilation at 
death. As soon as I reject as fallacious the proofs 
which are offered of the intervention of the discarnate 
in our world, annihilation is, you think, the only alter- 
native. In a word, you do not comprehend that one 
can reject spiritism and preserve at the same time 
spiritualism as a belief. It is just here, sir, that I 
should like to enlighten you, by covering, in a more 
complete manner, certain points which hitherto we 
have been unable to settle to our mutual satisfaction. 

AGAINST SPIRITISM 

To begin with, I believe that I have perceived in 
your conversation that you have already passed your 
first enthusiasm. You have passed that particular 
stage in which most novices in spiritism imagine that 

306 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

they have developed in themselves positive medium- 
ship, and in which, in the ardor of their discovery, 
they live only for their experiences in writing or at the 
table, which hold them in bondage and force them to 
think only of a future existence for days at a time. 
While you have doubtless had some interesting experi- 
ences during the past month, your enthusiasm is some- 
what assuaged, so that you will soon be ranked among 
reasonable spiritists — indeed, I would go so far as to 
say you are already partially disillusioned. . . . Per- 
mit me to analyze rapidly some of the obscure motives 
which I seem to have seen operative in your case. . . . 
There is, in the first place, the fact that you have 
never obtained an absolute and irreproachable mes- 
sage from the departed. Even those tender communi- 
cations from your father, which struck you so forcibly 
at your first seance, and of which you had many more 
in the later ones — even these so-called proofs of iden- 
tity, so personal, have on reflection inspired in you 
some doubts; it appears to you that they might have 
come from yourself. They contain nothing, in sub- 
stance, which could not have been hidden in your 
memory; and you sometimes asked yourself, without 
daring to reply, whether you had not been the dupe of 
your imagination and the true author of these mes- 
sages. . . . Examine a little the play of your imagina- 
tion, study what pathological psychology has taught 
us as to the facts of the subconscious, dissociated 
personality, automatism, and the role which the 
emotional complexes play even in our normal life, 
21 307 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

and I believe that you will no longer be surprised at 
what is now but a vague suspicion with you, and that 
it will become daily a greater and greater certainty. 

"But," you reply, "it is always open to hope that 
minute investigations, such as those of Hyslop, etc., 
will end by disclosing the presence of the discarnate 
in the automatisms of mediums — ^just as chemical 
analysis has ended by revealing in our atmosphere 
a new gas hitherto unsuspected. And again, even 
if the experimental methods never establish the 
intervention of spirits in our affairs, this would not 
prove that it had not taken place." . . . But I believe 
that even if beings or forces from "the other side" do 
act upon our physical or psychical worlds, science 
could never prove that fact — either because these 
actions, although considerable, would be too sporadic 
and capricious to take into account, or because al- 
though continuous each one would be so weak that it 
would remain below the limit which we can measure 
by instruments or by ourselves. . . . 

Secondly, another thing which has deceived you in 
these spiritistic seances is the melancholy belief that 
the ensemble of communications received gives us a 
picture of the mental condition of the discarnate. 
One does not know whether to laugh or cry at the 
triviality, the silliness, the incoherence of the greater 
part of their messages. It is truly a solace for the 
psychologists to be able to place all these intellectual 
turpitudes to the credit of an infantile subpersonality 
of a medium — a kind of puerile regression due to the 

308 



I 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

passivity of the trance state — rather than to see in 
them a sign of the condition of the soul after death. 
You yourself, were you not rather surprised to read, 
the other day, in a serious review,^ that Melancthon 
and Catherine von Bora, the friend and wife of the 
great reformer Luther, had personally appeared in a 
seance, and there approved of spiritism in excellent 
German? What a punishment to have sojourned 
three centuries and a half on "the other side," and 
then to return to speak platitudes by the side of the 
medium Miller ! You will excuse me if I prefer to seek 
the origin of this manifestation in the subconscious 
dreams of one of the sitters saturated with the his- 
tory of the Reformation. 

Even when the content of these messages is of a 
high moral order, this excellent characteristic is offset 
by a sad incoherence, which the spiritists are forced to 
explain as a momentary delirium, or state of mental 
aberration, on the part of the communicating spirit. 
But it can just as well be attributed to the hypnoid 
ramblings of the medium — this ethico-religious rub- 
bish, this indigestible conglomeration either of Biblical 
passages, mutilated or repeated ad nauseam, or frag- 
ments of masonic eloquence, or the rags and tatters of 
theosophical conferences, or banal long-drawn-out 
exhortations on charity, on spiritual perfection, etc. 
And I prefer to consider these automatic utterances 
the product of the remnants of sermons, and other 

^ Letort, " Les Seances du Medium Miller," Revue Scientifique et 
Morale du Spiritisme, 1908, p. 91. 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

discourses of the like, absorbed by the subconscious 
mind during periods of distraction rather than believe 
that they are the discarnate, endeavoring to reveal to 
us their highest instructions in a state of torpor and 
confusion truly desolate! You yourself have re- 
marked that the drawings and paintings of mediums 
in all countries are distinguished by a character soft 
and veiled, sometimes enigmatic and bizarre; or 
again they are archaic and childlike, and recall, in 
certain respects, the work of lunatics; and all this 
does little credit to the artists on *'the other side" 
if they are not explained as the subconscious produc- 
tions of the medium. 

As for those exceptional cases in which the medium- 
istic creations reach the acme of their perfection, is 
one quite sure that these wonders, before which the 
spiritists go into ecstasy, really surpass the latent 
powers of the medium or of the sitters ? The astonish- 
ing poetry, for example, which was given at the famous 
seances of Marine Terrace,^ can they lay claim to 
authorship from the spirit world, or do we not under- 
estimate the genius of Hugo in thinking that he could 
not subconsciously compose these wonderful phan- 
tasies ? 2 

* See as to these s6ances of the Hugo family, in Jersey, the three 
interesting chapters of Jabois, The Modern Miracle, Paris, 1907, 
pp. 106-39. 

2 It will be objected to this explanation, without doubt, that 
Victor Hugo himself did not touch the stool which was under the 
hands of his son Charles. But this objection overlooks the fact 
that there is often at such times a constant telepathic connection 
between the sitter and the medium. It might be, also, that the 

310 



I 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

I do not pretend that all these phenomena can be 
explained by the process of automatic incubation 
which suddenly reveals genuine latent talents hither- 
to asleep in subjects who had never suspected them- 
selves before of possessing them. But it is one thing 
to remember that there are many mysteries in the 
depths of our natures, and obscurities in the play of 
our hidden powers, and another to attribute to intru- 
sions from the spirit world all that astonishes us, with- 
out even examining the questions of heredity, latent 
incubation, etc. This is assuredly an unscientific 
method. You will, I know, agree with me that it is 
distinctly superfluous to refer to "spirits" phenomena 
which might be perfectly explained by powers inherent 
in the medium. 

A third characteristic which has contributed to 
your indifference toward the subject is its unwhole- 
some character, alike from the moral and physiological 
points of view. Among the majority of spiritistic 
groups there exists a sort of equivocal religion — a 
mysticism of a doubtful character. Their meetings 
begin with a prayer by the president and finish with 
the jokes of the sitters or the hysterical cries of the 
medium. At the beginning of the seance the good 

author of these poems was Charles Hugo himself, who, in his 
isolation, and in the semi-trance condition induced by the process 
of typtology, awoke some hereditary power of versifying during 
the period of waiting and expectancy. In proof of this see the 
linguistic aptitude which Mile. Smith showed in her trance con- 
dition, but which she entirely lacked in her normal state. (From 
India to the Planet Mars.) 

311 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

spirits, which piously admonish the sitters, soon give 
place to the joking of evil spirits. It is certain that, un- 
der cover of psychic studies and so-called *' scientific 
experiments,'' too often the habitues of circles come 
to seek the marvelous, the occult, the supernatural, 
the rare sensations and the little delicious thrills which 
they experience at the expectation of seeing the 
unknown or of direct contact with another world ! 

You will reply that I speak of groups, unfortunately 
too numerous, which only investigate spiritism for 
amusement, and that with those in serious and con- 
vinced circles it is another thing. Alas, yes, it is 
another thing, and very bad it is from the point of view 
of physical and mental health ! For where the experi- 
ences are of a gay nature, there is at least a hygienic 
relaxation from the high interior tension, for which 
laughter is the logical outlet. It wakes the conscious- 
ness to a sense of wholesome reality, and puts an end 
to the automatism, recalling the individual to himself. 
But in the serious seances, where this safety-valve is 
wanting, there is nothing to oppose the mental disin- 
tregation of the medium, and also of the sitters, 
however little they may be predisposed to it. In 
circles there are hardly ever lacking temperaments 
attracted by the occult — moths which fly into the 
flame that consumes them. You have told me your- 
self how, after the best seances, you felt nervous 
and excited, and that this was followed by insomnia, 
strange impressions, commencements of hallucina- 
tions, involuntary movements, etc. — although you are 

312 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

not what is called a neuropath. Think, then, of those 
who are, or, again, of the sensitive natures of young 
girls, or those young people whose stupid parents have 
forced them to perform automatic writing, table-tip- 
ping, etc., in the family circle, from which they suffer 
all their lives, in a form of mental disequilibrium more 
or less pronounced. And to give you an idea of the 
ravages due to practical spiritism, consult a few of the 
annals of medicine.^ Think also of the numerous 
cases which never come to light, but which on that 
account, make no less unhappiness in the family — 
who have forced upon them all the more strongly the 
phrase of M. Jules Bois: **The imprudent who run 
after the spirits, lose their own spirit."^ 

When I drew your attention to the fatal conse- 
quences of spiritism you replied to me that they are 
much exaggerated, the alienists having, according 
to you, a mania for seeing insanity in all that lies 
beyond the ordinary. It is enough for them that 
some psychological phenomena go beyond the ordi- 
nary teachings of materialism to be treated by them 
as hallucinations or systematized insanity. I recognize 
that psychiatry, like every other science, can be 
limited and prejudiced when intuitive comprehension 
is lacking in the practitioner. But we must not 
exaggerate here. There are alienists, it is true, who 

^ See, among other works, Violet, Spiritism and Insanity, Lon- 
don, 1 910; Ueber die Beziehungen zwischen Spiritismus und Geis- 
tesstorung, Berlin, 1902; Dr. C. Williams, Spiritualism and Insan- 
ity, London, 19 10, etc. 

'■^ The Modern Miracle, p. 401. 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

are ignorant enough of all that happens outside their 
regular practice to declare that all mediums are 
paranoiacs and the doctrine of spiritism an insane 
delusion. It is possible. But these examples of 
ignorance are to-day more and more rare, and from 
them one ought not to judge other practitioners, 
better qualified to appreciate the anomalies of the 
human mind. I could mention to you several psy- 
chiatrists who do not believe that the spiritistic doc- 
trine in itself constitutes any symptom of insanity; 
but they only insist the more strongly upon the dan- 
gers which it offers for morbid temperaments and 
weak or superstitious minds which are inclined to give 
a spiritistic interpretation and a supernatural value to 
all obscure phenomena, or to seek revelations from 
''the other side" by those practices which threaten 
mental dissociation. 

Doctor Violet, for example, one of the most recent 
authors on this subject, believes that it is impossible 
to declare the spiritistic doctrine an insanity, since we 
must consider it merely as one of many human opin- 
ions. But on the other hand it constitutes, he thinks, 
a vast ''culture-bouillon" for all the errors, all the 
want of equilibrium, which ultimately lead to in- 
sanity.^ 

This judgment of the learned alienist is supported 
by a detailed study of the spiritistic insanities, which 
cannot be too strongly recommended to all exponents 
of spiritism. 

* Violet, Spiritism and Insanity. 
314 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

On the other hand, you may reply that, so far from 
denying these pernicious effects of spiritism, you have 
told me that the spiritists themselves have been the 
first to point them out, but that the novices have not, 
until too late, paid any attention to these warnings, 
given them by the older spiritists. These mental 
troubles spiritism attributes to the ''obsession" or 
"possession" of inexperienced and imprudent mediums 
by bad spirits, of which space is full. And as the 
shades of Homer revivified themselves by drinking the 
blood of the sacrifices, so the evil and inferior spirits, 
in quest of adventure, rove about spiritistic groups, 
ready to seize upon the organisms of subjects of a 
delicate constitution and of little vital resistance. 
And it is thus that even the dangers of spiritism prove 
its truth ! However, your simple good sense and the 
analysis of some examples have already shown you 
that very often these wicked spirits do not come from 
"the other side," but that they sleep in ourselves. 
They are our inferior impulses, our atavic instincts, our 
fears or our remorses, our crazy ideas, our suppressed 
emotions, all those hordes of undisciplined elements, 
normally held in check and driven back into the 
shadowy background of our being by the supremacy 
of the conscious "ego " — these suddenly usurp the su- 
premacy when the latter abdicates, so that instead of 
proving the interference of evil spirits, it is really this 
internal mob of wild thoughts and emotions which the 
medium has released and allowed to exercise free 
play. The idea that it is so in all cases of mental 

315 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

disturbance due to spiritism is assuredly only a 
hypothesis, like all generalizations from particular 
facts, but a hypothesis which psychopathological 
observations confirm each day more and more, and 
which prove, on the contrary, that ''bad spirits" 
or "demons" do not assail the medium from with- 
out. 

I need not tell you that these unwholesome aspects 
of spiritism scarcely predispose me in its favor or give 
me the desire to become a spiritist ! . . . 

But, according to you, all the preceding considera- 
tions — the puerility of the messages (which hardly al- 
low one to think, much less desire, them to be the work 
of the discarnate), their usual explicability by purely 
psychological laws and processes, and the dangers 
of mediumistic practices, all of which might well 
teach us prudence with regard to the interpretation of 
the facts, and to justify the aversion which so many 
spiritists themselves feel as to the outcome of the 
seances and of the phenomena — all this does not prove 
that we are enabled to go beyond the spiritistic hy- 
pothesis when one considers the ensemble of the facts 
observed. For if the greater part of the mediumistic 
manifestations — perhaps all, taken separately and in 
particular — remain an uncertain authority, that does 
not, you will say, dispose of the contention that the in- 
tervention of the discarnate may none the less be an 
absolute certainty ; and this is shown by the presence 
of two facts otherwise inexplicable. These are (i) that 
the intelligences sending these messages invariably 

316 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

assert that they are spirits of the departed, and (2) 
the oftentimes supernormal character of the contents 
of the messages. 

Permit me to examine these two arguments, each in 
turn, a Httle more fully. 

I. I do not ignore the fact that spiritists have often 
invoked in support of their thesis the fact that every- 
where and always the mediumistic communications 
pretend to proceed from the spirit world. According 
to them, this constancy of statement could not be 
explained if it corresponded to no external reality, for 
it is inconceivable that our subconscious minds could 
ceaselessly clothe themselves in the semblance of the 
departed, and claim to be there, when as a matter of 
fact they were never there in reality at all ! And you 
quoted to me, in support of this, the very competent 
authority of M. Denis, the great apostle of French 
spiritism, which refutes this psychological theory of 
subconscious activity in the following fashion : ^ 

' ' It might well be asked by virtue of what universal 
agreement these subconscious complexes in man, 
which are ignored by him and which mutually ignore 
one another, are unanimous ... in calling themselves 
the spirits of the dead. . . . This is at least what we 
have been able to prove and establish in the innumer- 
able experiments in which we have taken part during 
the past thirty years in so many different parts of 
France and abroad. . . . Nowhere are the invisible 
beings represented as being subconscious complexes, 

* L, Denis, Christianisme et Spiritisme, Paris, 1898, pp. 261, 262. 

317 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



I 



or superior egos of the medium, or of other persons 
present, but always as different personaHties enjoying 
the fullness of consciousness and as free individuals 
who have already lived on earth." * 

But, despite the authority of M. Denis, it seems to 
me necessary to make a distinction between the per- 
sonal character of the communication and its attri- 
bution to the defunct. It is true that this mysterious 
being always states (of itself or when questioned) that 
it is some one ^ who speaks of himself in the first person 
singular, or in the plural, but it is not true that this 
"some one " asserts invariably that he is a spirit of the 
dead; for, in numbers of cases, it affirms itself to be an 
angel or a demon when not the devil or God himself,^ 
or an individual still living on earth; or, again, pace 
M. Denis, the second ego of the medium. As to the 
first of these illustrations, you will find plenty of cases 
in the history of possession, in all times and in all 
countries — cases of demon possession in theomania, 
etc. But allow me to give you an example of one of 
the two latter categories, certainly less frequent. 

Here is an incident which happened in a spiritistic 
group in our own town, and which was reported to me 
by an eye-witness : 

1 This is also the attitude taken by Prof. Alfred Russel Wallace, 
in his Miracles and Modern Spiritualism. — Tr. 

2 Which is not astonishing if this source is the medium himself, 
for how could the latter imagine himself in his r61e as an imper- 
sonal being ? 

3 As happened in several cases collected by myself. See also the 
unabridged French edition, Cases 247 and 249, pp. 113, 114. and 
Case 313, p. 152, etc. — Tr. 

318 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

We had one day a very odd communication. The 
table spelled out: "My name commences with X and 
finishes with X." "Ah!" we said, ''this is a joker; 
there cannot be a name both beginning and ending 
with an X." But my surprise was extreme when the 
table, continuing its typtological response, spelled out, 
Xavier Chanaux. This was the name of an old pro- 
fessor of music of my childhood, whom I had lost sight 
of for at least six years. I asked: "Is that indeed 
you, M. Chanaux? When did you die?" The table 
responded, "I am not dead!" Then followed a sen- 
tence in which M. Chanaux recalled that he had taken 
part in an international conference of music which 
took place in Geneva, etc. I have since ascertained 
that M. Chanaux was not dead at the moment when 
this communication was received. I was not thinking 
in the least of M. Chanaux when this message was 
given. But I always had the impression that Mile. 
Dyck, who was fond of music, and who had with her 
the programme of music being given in Geneva, and 
who had at least gone through it, and knew that I was 
born at Dole, had subconsciously noted the name of 
M. Chanaux, professor of music at Dole, and director 
of the musicai society which had taken part in the 
conference." 

It is thus quite possible that the subconscious 
imaginings of the medium, or of the sitters, can occa- 
sion messages not only from the dead, but from the 
living. . . . 

319 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

You see, then, that M. Denis is wrong when he says 
that the authors of mediumistic memories are unan- 
imous in saying that they are spirits of the dead. It 
is true that this is generally the case, but there is 
nothing astonishing in that, since this is the result of 
the atmosphere at spiritistic circles, where the medium 
and his sitters are always more or less saturated with 
the idea and the expectation of seeing the dead mani- 
fest. Suggestion and auto-suggestion, in short, suffice 
to explain the nature of these communications, and if 
M. Denis, in the course of his thirty years of experi- 
ments, has never seen an exception, that proves 
simply the contagious power of his conviction in the 
seances when he was present, which will not surprise 
any one who knows his sympathetic personality. 

Among the neurologists, an attempt has recently 
been made to give a psycho-physiological explanation 
of this remarkable fact — that the subconsciousness of 
the medium should, on occasion, pretend to be a spirit 
of the dead. Messrs. Sidis and Goodhart attribute 
this peculiarity to the structure of our nervous centers 
— to neurons, relatively independent, whose relations 
are purely functional, and which are extremely mobile 
and variable, constituting momentary systems always 
liable to be disorganized and to form new groups, 
co-existent with a more stable grouping, which serves 
as the physiological basis for the normal ego. From 
the psychical point of view, these unstable groupings 
constitute temporary personalities, which have a great 
liking for imitation and play; they give themselves 

320 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

names, and simulate people who have died. Because 
of this childlike deception, they disclose the fact that 
they are not mature personalities, living and real, but 
that they have a sort of reality of their own, neverthe- 
less. By placing themselves in another world than 
ours — in the world of discarnate spirits — the personali- 
ties of the trance reveal their true nature — as unreal 
beings, ephemeral, simple candidates for existence.^ 

Like all anatomico-physiological statements of the 
facts of consciousness, this ingenious theory has the 
advantage of furnishing us a sort of visual symbol 
of what occurs, in terms of associating and dissociating 
neurons ; but it has also the inevitable fault of telling 
us nothing new as to the psychological phenomena 
themselves, and of giving us no explanation, properly 
so called. In particular, one does not see why these 
personalities, so unstable and ephemeral, do not ever 
betray their condition in the least and show them- 
selves to be the simple reflection of something else, etc. 
In short, it seems far more natural to me to attribute 
to the suggestions of the circle and the latent com- 
plexes of the medium these somnambulistic creations 
claiming to be discarnate spirits. . . . 

Let us now turn to the content of the messages, so 
often supernormal, and which, in your eyes, prove the 
intervention of spirits. I do not contest the fact that, 
after the elimination of what is only supernormal in 

^ Sidis and Goodhart. Multiple Personality, New York, 1905, 
p. 54. This is a summary of their views, and not an exact quota- 
tion.— Tr. 

321 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

appearance * — cases of mal-observation, subconscious 
imagination, etc. — there remain many phenomena 
which are absolutely inexplicable by any of the princi- 
ples of science as taught in our schools to-day. But 
all this does not admit the presence of the discarnate ; 
and, in such a case as this, we cannot afford to take a 
wrong road, and attribute at once to "spirits" all the 
facts which are at present beyond our scientific knowl- 
edge and power of explanation. These problems are, 
it is true, far from being solved. Perhaps metapsy- 
chics will end by giving its adhesion to the spiritistic 
doctrine. Possibly. I am, however, struck by two 
points which hardly tell in favor of this ultimate 
verdict. 

In the first place, supernormal manifestations often 
seem to quicken into being powers which, though 
mysterious, still belong to living people, and which 
become apparent in certain peculiar conditions of 
mind and body; so that we should have here no 
need of calling upon the discarnate to produce these 
phenomena. Telepathy, exteriorization of motivity, 
materializations, clairvoyance, lucidity, etc. — all these 
phenomena seem to be produced by powers still in- 
herent in our own being — though only noticeable 

* As a good example of what appears to be supernormal, and is 
afterward shown to be trickery, take the case of the horse Hans, 
which created such a stir some years ago, and which was only 
explained by the ingenuity of Professor Stumpf. For a more 
detailed explanation of the methods employed in teaching animals 
to perform their tricks, see my article in the Scientific American. 
— Tr. 

322 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

to any degree in certain individuals, and in them only 
under certain psycho-physiological conditions (secon- 
dary states of consciousness, somnambulism, etc.). 
Of course this does not exclude the possibility that the 
spirits of the dead also employ these same devices; 
but if that is the case, it becomes increasingly difficult 
to prove their existence. In other words, before dar- 
ing to give a verdict in favor of the discarnate, much 
more must be known as to the foundation and ground- 
work of our own constitution, with all its resources 
and endless possibilities. ... 

The second point which causes me to hesitate in 
accepting spiritism is that the majority of savants who 
have studied the subject the most minutely seem to 
recede more and more from the spiritistic interpreta- 
tion of the facts the further they proceed in their 
investigations.* Read, for example, the last utterance 
on this subject of Prof. William James, ^ where he 
stated that, after investigating the subject for more 
than twenty-five years, he was still "on the fence'* 
with regard to the spiritistic interpretation of these 
facts. 

^ I do not think this remark of Professor Flournoy can be sus- 
tained. In proof of this, I may point out that Doctor Hodgson 
only became convinced of the reality of the spiritistic hypothesis 
after working for years with Mrs. Piper, and Professor Hyslop was 
slowly but surely converted in the same way. Sir Oliver Lodge, 
Sir William Crookes, Dr. A. R. Wallace, Mr. Myers, and many 
other men of like standing were only converted after years of 
research. — Tr. 

2 William James, "The Confidences of a Psychical Researcher," 
American Magazine, 1909, pp. 580-589. 

22 323 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

While insisting strongly upon the necessity of pur- 
suing the study of the supernormal, and while assured! 
that in this realm there are many facts still unex-! 
plained, . . . Professor James concludes that he can 
accept neither the spiritistic nor the orthodox scien- 
tific hypothesis (which denies to these facts all objec- 
tive value or existence), and that he can only await 
the evidence of new facts. You will not, I am sure, 
challenge the competence and impartiality of this 
learned professor; he has, indeed, so little against the 
spiritistic hypothesis that he has often been impru- 
dently quoted in its support by their authorities. 

But perhaps you will tell me that conclusions of 
Professor James are only his personal opinions, and 
opposed to them are the opinions of other savants 
equally well known — such as Lombroso, Lodge, Hys- 
lop, etc. But if the spiritistic hypothesis rests on 
such uncertain ground — there being so great a diver- 
sity of opinion among the best-qualified investigators 
— it proves at least that this theory is far from being 
proved or universally accepted. . . . 

But all other considerations apart, it is obvious 
that the final belief in spiritism, based as it is upon sci- 
entific evidence, so called, is, after all, an act of faith, 
like any other belief — since this theory is selected 
from among many other hypotheses also advanced 
to explain the facts. That is why spiritism, even if 
proved, would not differ fundamentally from any other 
philosophical or religious belief, since i.t heart it is 
an act of faith, after all ! When all has been proved, 

324 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

we must believe. And this brings me to the second 
point of my letter. 

FOR SPIRITUALISM 

Let us now consider your second argument — your 
amazement that reasonable people can still believe 
in a future life when they have rejected, as *' non- 
proven," the demonstrations which spiritism appears 
to have given them. 

This position seems to you untenable. For you 
there is no middle course ; when one has been emanci- 
pated from blind submission to the dogmatic teachings 
of the clergy, nothing is left but to follow implicitly the 
teachings of science, and this can only lead, according 
to you, to monism or spiritism! That it might be 
neither the one nor the other never seems to have 
occurred to you ; that there might be beyond all this 
a domain of belief in which philosophy and religion 
can have free play appears incredible to you. This is 
hardly surprising after your long training in Biichner 
and Haeckel, who have never learned to distinguish 
between what belongs to science and experimental 
verification and what relates to personal faith. They 
made you believe that their ''monism" was scientifi- 
cally and experimentally demonstrated, until the day 
when the rappings of a table forced you to believe that 
its refutation was complete, but also scientific and 
experimental ! 

This desire — I should almost say this mania — for 
experimental and scientific demonstration is certainly 

325 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

praiseworthy in itself; and we may be thankful that 
this characteristic is being spread widely throughout 
all classes of society. . . . 

But, after we have reached the end of all that 
positive science can teach us, we are always face to 
face with the fundamental enigmas of the universe, 
which they are powerless to explain — the existence of 
thought and the world, the origin and nature of life, 
the problem of good and evil, etc. When considering 
them we always encounter two opposing types of 
philosophies, which Renouvier has so well termed the 
philosophies of the person and the philosophies of the 
thing. In the former the most important and real 
elements are the conscious subject and its significance, 
eventually accepting the doctrine of personal immor- 
tality as its rational outcome and the only logical 
consequence of a moral order. In the latter all this is 
pure sentimentality and fundamentally untrue. 

The type par excellence of the latter is monism, 
which you already know, and to which you for long 
gave your adhesion (and I also at times, when reading 
some of its most brilliant exponents, from Spinoza 
to Hartmann, feeling sometimes the charm of their 
imagination), whatever its particular nuance — mate- 
rialistic, idealistic, etc. — and by whatever name it 
designates its absolute idol — Substance, Force, Nature, 
Cosmic Energy, The Idea, The Unconscious, The Will 
to Live, The Absolute, The Unknowable, The Eter- 
nal Axiom, etc. There is grandeur, majesty, in this 
doctrine, that all the apparent multiplicity of the 

326 



1 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

universe is found, at basis, to be essentially one; 
and we experience a sort of mysterious fascination in 
the presence of the sublime immensity of this thing 
which unrolls itself ceaselessly, without end and with- 
out beginning, in the infinity of space and time — the 
avatars of its protof orm mass ; a sort of metaphysical 
protoplasm, engendering and reabsorbing alternately, 
with a blind and implacable necessity, all finite be- 
ings and their ephemeral attributes — the atoms and 
nebulas, bodies and consciousnesses, joys and sorrows, 
loves and hates. . . . The spectacle of this eternal 
evolution — where everything is becoming and nothing 
persists — rocks you and cradles you with the magic 
rhythm of the ocean, whose billows each in turn be- 
come individualized and scintillate a moment in the 
light of day, only to be engulfed a moment later in the 
obscure abyss of the Sublime All. It is splendid ! 

Only this thought finishes by irritating you or 
giving you nausea ! It has never affected me in this 
way. In trying to appreciate the view-point of this 
philosophy I have felt the true value of our indi- 
vidual being vanish, as well as all other values of 
which it is the necessary pivot. All the interest which 
attaches to this world, all the motives and reasons for 
life, the explanation of which our philosophic systems 
have for their aim and end, vanish also. For the 
thing or the substance of monism is assuredly eternal 
— if the persons which it brings forth are not so; the 
joys by which they are illusioned one moment must be 
equally obliterated into nothingness. I do not under- 

327 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



1 



stand, indeed, how any values whatever, whether they 
be inferior values, and purely economic, from the 
material point of view, or the more spiritual values of 
truth and beauty, or the supreme social values of 
justice and love — I cannot understand how these can 
subsist in the abstract or impersonal form after the 
extinction of individual consciousness, alone capable 
of feeling and of appreciating them. . . . 

I know well enough that the apostles of monism 
make praiseworthy efforts to preserve the culture of 
the ideal. Haeckel, for example, after having con- 
demned ''athanatism" (as he calls the belief in immor- 
tality) , detailing with complaisance all the vices which 
he discovers in a future life, even to the discomfiture 
which there would be for many in finding themselves 
"eternally by the side of their better half, or their 
mother-in-law" — Haeckel does not hesitate to make 
sport of the eloquence of the pulpit, and to hold forth 
upon the Trinity of the True, the Good, and the Beau- 
tiful — unctuous and touching homilies! But what 
would you? For these edifying discourses not to 
sound hollow in my ears I must forget the famous 
substance which gives birth to the most noble heroes 
as easily as the most degraded criminals, and swallows 
them up the moment after with equal indifference! 

For those who have already seen the tomb close over 
their dearest one — annihilating at one blow this prize 
without value, the crown, the reason of being, the 
end and aim of all other values — how ridiculous to 
them the religion and the moral teachings of the mon- 

328 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

ists must appear; how lugubriously cynical! For if 
there is one thing which we are not allowed to expect 
from their impersonal substance it is assuredly pity — 
that pity of which Pierre Loti spoke recently : "... A 
supreme pity toward which are flung at the final hour 
of parting the cries for mercy, for forgiveness; a pity 
capable of granting us even this reunion, without 
which conscious life, and love in the infinite sense of 
that word, would only be a cruelty too wicked and 
imbecile for words." 

It is true that neither love ''in the infinite sense of 
that word" nor the desire for reunion appears to tor- 
ment the monists, to judge by the consolations they 
offer to souls in trouble. . . . 

If the loss of those who are dear to you afflicts you 
to this point, listen to what one of the most illustrious 
monists says on the subject: ''It is your fault; you 
must not love so much! The most simple means of 
guarding yourself against such sorrows, and of living 
happily, is to avoid feelings which are too tender and 
too exclusive. Scatter your affections among a circle 
of people large enough to prevent your perceiving any 
loss caused by death." What a pity that all the world 
cannot arrive at this height of depersonalization ! "I 
loved him," said Montaigne, weeping for his friend, 
La Boetie, "because he was himself and I was myself." 
What would he have replied to one who reproached 
him for having concentrated his friendship instead of 
scattering it over all his acquaintances ? 

Elsewhere the old materialistic monists ask us: 

329 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

"Why do you complain like children who find that 
their bread is not buttered enough? Is it not suffi- 
cient that you survive in the only way which nature 
assures you — in the indestructible atoms of which you 
are constituted, and which will re-enter into the eternal 
circulation of life by the indefinite repercussion of our 
least acts on our material and social environment, by 
the memory which we leave to our friends and to pos- 
terity (as long as they do not forget you) ? 

There are perhaps those to whom the vision of 
having their statue erected in a public place would 
suffice for the loss of all they have lost and loved. So 
much the better for them ! . . . 

"But can you not understand," continue these 
subtle dialecticians, "that eternity and immortality 
are even now at your disposal ? For these terms are far 
from signifying, as a vain people think, an impossible 
survival beyond the tomb, but simply a certain quality 
of present life. The other life ought not to be sym- 
bolized by a mere prolongation of itself upon a line of 
time, but by a dimension perpendicular to this line. 
To lose one's self in the cult of art or of science is to be- 
come altruistic; to devote one's self to some great cause 
or sublime ideal — in short, to give to one's existence a 
content of infinite value — that is really to possess life 
eternal and to participate in immortality." 

There are here some noble thoughts, to which I fully 
subscribe. But I confess myself as not agreeing with 
this quintessence of idealism, which grants us eternity 
and immortality in a metaphorical sense, implying 

330 



r 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 



their negation in the ordinary sense; for I do not see 
how to avoid the eternal "All is vanity," of Ecclesi- 
astes, if individual consciousness — even the richest in 
value — cannot escape the final nothingness. 

Finally, as if they themselves felt the inanity of their 
dissertations in the face of the brutal fact of death 
and experienced the need of some compensation more 
concrete and living, all monists strive to divert our 
attention from ourselves, and direct them upon future 
generations, who will receive the benefit of our efforts, 
of our griefs, of our sacrifices. They do not doubt that 
this grand perspective of the progress of the human 
race, marching toward perfection, will replace in time, 
and with advantage, the selfish and pitiful faith of the 
coal-heaver in individual future life. They assure 
us, indeed, that our most distant descendants will one 
day realize this ideal of beauty, truth, and goodness 
which now passes above our heads, and will enter into 
this land of promise to which we are refused! If we 
were to accept this prediction it would require, it 
seems to me, a faith more robust and simple than that 
of the coal-heaver to imagine that the workings of 
adaptation would become weaker instead of stronger 
with the growing complexity of the condition of life on 
this planet. . . . 

But to all this I foresee your reply. ''It is very 
good, although a trifle banal," you say to me, ''to 
show us that the immortality of the soul would be a 
desirable thing, indispensable to give to life a moral 
significance, satisfying and ennobling, by this per- 

331 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

spective of eternal progress. Every one — save Haeckel| 
and his disciples — agrees on this point, and subscribej 
to the words of Renan — that a man who believes in 
future life is worth more than the man who does not J 
But this is not the question. The thing is whethei 
the belief is true or illusory. Monism demonstrates' 
that it is illusory, consciousness being only the func- 
tion of the cerebral cortex — an epiphenomenon with- 
out reality in itself, a simple reflection of nervous 
vibratory changes, or, as Doctor Forel expresses it, 
"the subjective mirroring of the neurokymes," * and 
this necessarily becomes extinct with the destruction 
of the brain. All the speculations of the metaphysi- 
cians and theologians could not prevail against this 
argument of fact; there is only the experimental 
evidence of another fact — the intervention of the dis- 
carnate — ^which would prove that consciousness sur- 
vives the death of the organism. Now, it is exactly 
this proof which spiritism gives us, and assures us the 
future life. It alone responds to this double demand 
of our being : on one side, the eternal cry of the heart, 
which demands something else than a world where 
everything perishes, and in which love is always con- 
quered by death; and, on the other side, the absolute 
need of scientific certainty. While your philosophico- 
religious spiritualism seeks to satisfy the first of these 
needs, it confesses itself incapable of responding to the 
second, and is only an antiquated argument, proved 

^ See Forel, Hypnotism, chap, i, "Consciousness and the Hy- 
pothesis of Identity," pp. 1-36. — Tr. 

332 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

powerless to wrestle with monism, which has a highly 
scientific character and the support of physiology. 
Once more, it is only spiritistic phenomena which are 
capable of silencing the monists and giving us the cer- 
tainty of the future life ; so that one may affirm that, 
outside spiritism, there is no salvation for spiritualism'^ 
I should reply to this that I do not recognize the 
scientific character of monism any more than I do that 
of spiritism. As to the latter, I have already ex- 
plained my attitude in the first part of this letter. As 
to monism, permit me to say a few words on this sub- 
ject, since you appear to be still very impressed by it. 

Against the So-called ''Scientific'' Character of Monism 

Understand thoroughly, then, that I do not share 
the metaphysical views of the monists. . . . What I 
criticize them for is their constant confusion of science 
with metaphysics, and of their abuse of the ordinary 
ignorance of the masses, by making them believe that 
their doctrine is the only legitimate one, from the 
scientific point of view, when as a matter of fact it is 
only a tissue of contradictions. Here are a few speci- 
mens of their reasoning on the relations of brain and 
consciousness : 

I. In saying that consciousness, as such, is a cerebral 
function, and exercises no influence upon the organ- 
ism, monism finds itself opposed to the biological 
principle that all function has its use in the struggle for 
existence, and that a function or an organ which is 
useless tends to atrophy and to disappear. If the facts 

333 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



« 



of consciousness, as such, have no effect upon the 
conduct of the individual, they would never have 
appeared; or, once having appeared by spontaneous 
variation, they would have been promptly extin- 
guished by non-usage, which is contrary to our obser- 
vations, and which shows us that they are constantly 
being developed and becoming more complex in the 
course of evolution. 

2. Physiology, which aims to represent and explain 
mechanically the processes which go on in the body, 
has a perfect right to treat the phenomena of con- 
sciousness as epiphenomena, of which it need take no 
account, for all our sciences are obliged to limit them^ 
selves to a special point of view, a restricted portion 
of the total of experience, and to ignore the rest as 
if it did not exist. But monism, in elevating to the 
place of supreme importance the physiological equiva- 
lent, and in saying that the facts of consciousness 
have no reality in themselves, or that psychology 
belongs to cerebral physiology, sets itself in opposition 
to science in general, which ought not to neglect any 
fact whatever. It is exactly as if a geometrician 
endeavored to impose idealism upon us, or to condemn 
physics, under the pretext that solidity, weight, and 
all the material properties of the body are non-exist- 
ent things for geometry. What more anti-scientific 
than this narrowness of mind, which understands 
nothing outside its specialty, and which proclaims as 
truths these amateur metaphysical speculations ? 

3. The monists, in order to invest their doctrine 

334 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

with further credit, repeat constantly that science is 
necessarily monistic, since it aims at unity. And to 
think that there are people who can repeat such soph- 
isms ! For what relation is there between the unity 
of substance as postulated by monism, and the formal 
unity — the systematization and co-ordination — ^which 
science is obliged to introduce into the multiplicity of 
facts ? In reality science is as pluralistic as monistic, 
unless we employ a certain terminology specially con- 
structed to fit the facts. Science employs analysis 
as much as synthesis, and displays the qualitative 
variety of things as much as their quantitative rela- 
tions ; and, in the unity of physical forces — the greatest 
discovery of the past century — the variety and multi- 
formity of these forces is as certain as their unity. 

As to the grand doctrine of energetics of Ostwald, 
which is the last cry of so-called ** scientific" monism, 
it is only by playing with the ambiguity of the word 
Energy (taken without qualification) that they have 
succeeded in making consciousness, as such, a part of 
their system. As to the dualism of the mental and 
physical facts, which we have not yet been able to 
reduce or to transform into each other, they tell us 
the first is a manifestation of cerebral energy, the 
second a manifestation of mental energy, both being 
manifestations of Energy proper — as are heat, light, 
electricity, etc.; and in consequence they are trans- 
formed one into the other, as are these latter — that is 
to say, a certain quantity of the one disappears when 
the other appears. What could be more simple and 

335 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

more evident ? I have nothing against this ingenious 
reasoning (except its unintelligibiHty to my obtuse 
intellect) , and I should be delighted to learn that the 
energy of the physico-spacial world suffers momentary 
loss every time that I am conscious of anything; but, 
far from such an idea being ''demonstrated/' it ap- 
pears to me absolutely contrary to all the teachings 
of experience. ^ 

In fact, one might say that positive science is not 
monistic nor dualistic, but rather triadistic. For, 
outside consciousness, savants declare that life is as 
irreducible as matter.^ As the monists consider these 
three things diverse manifestations of their Substance 
and Energy — ^which they are entitled to, from the 
point of view of metaphysics — they have yet to prove 
that this conception has any value or utility whatever 
for science. 

4. As for the particular science of man, physiological 
psychology, so far from being monistic, is radically 
dualistic throughout. And this is a dualism not 
simply metaphysical, which afHrms two substances, 
but a truly scientific and experimental dualism, which 
admits two series of irreducible facts — the corporeal or 
physiological and the mental or psychological series. 
For metaphysics, the traditional theory of two sub- 
stances (matter and spirit) in intimate reciprocal 
action to each other — in spite of the amusing con- 
tempt and terror which it inspires in so many savants 

* See, among others, Arrhenius, Worlds in the Making, New 
York, chap, viii, and Lodge, Life and Matter, New York. — Tr. 

336 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

— is infinitely more simple, when one considers it, than 
monism; it is more in conformity with the facts of 
experience, more scientific, in a word, than monism, 
which identifies everything, confuses everything, con- 
founds everything. 

But science has nothing to do with metaphysics. 
Some day the theory will have to be abandoned that 
psycho-physiology is necessarily monistic, but rather 
that it is dualistic — so much so that even the most 
fanatic defenders of monism cannot fail to recognize 
dualism in practical experience, a contradiction which 
confers a certain piquancy to their works. 

Here is one proof, among many. Take the recent 
volume of Forel,^ one of the most brilliant of the con- 
temporary monists, and compare the Preface (p. i) 
with chapter iii, passim. In the first lines of the 
Preface, the metaphysician affirms that the mind and 
the activity of the brain are one and the same thing, 
and severely criticizes those people who ' ' do not dare 
to look facts in the face," as well as those who ''form 
their judgment upon authority," all those people who 
say that ''the inter-relation of consciousness and 
brain is a metaphysical and insoluble question," and 
who wish to "construct the science of man upon 
an equivocation called psycho-physical parallelism." 
Good! Turn over some pages, and you will see the 
savant this time fall into this double heresy which he 
has just condemned! When he begins to "look facts 
in the face," he finds himself obliged to admit: First, 
* L'Ame et le Systeme Nerveux, Paris, 1906. 

337 



I 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

that the direct reduction of a state of consciousness to 
a * * neurokyme " (nervous impulse), or the reverse, is 
* ' an impossibiHty " ; better still, it is " a transcendental 
question — situated beyond the knowledge of man." 
It seems to me that Forel here defends exactly what 
he has been so severely criticizing all the time. Second- 
ly, when he says that "in all psychic manifestation 
there corresponds a neurokymic activity in the neu- 
rones of our brain," I do not see that he differs from 
the psycho-physical parallelism which M. Forel treat- 
ed as a mere "equivocation" when formulated by 
others ! 

A few pages further on you will find again the 
metaphysical speculations which blind the savants. 
In his desire to escape the pernicious influence of a 
mystic dualism between body and soul, he turns his 
back to facts of experience, and under the name 
of "scientific monism" admits "the supposition that 
they are the same realities, which appear to us psycho- 
logically as mind and physiologically as neurokymes." 
And he finds support in Fechner,^ the founder of 
psycho-physiology, forgetting that the latter never 
put forward his philosophical monism as a scientific 
doctrine. As the metaphysician and the scientist 
continue this opposition throughout Forel' s works, 
let us note that "as the mind and the neurokyme are 

* Fechner was essentially spiritualistic, for he admitted personal 
immortality, which he defended with conviction in the greater 
part of his works; see, among others. The Little Book of Life After 
Death, Boston, 1904, and his Die Drei Motive und Grunde des 
Glaubens, Leipsic, 1863. 

338 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

inseparable from each other" in our experience, the 
author concludes that it is necessary to speak of 
their complete identity, and not of their parallelism, 
since ' ' one and the same thing cannot be parallel with 
itself.'* Evidently; but it has not the appearance of 
being parallel with itself; and against it we might 
place another phrase, also "self-evident": that two 
irreducible things forever different (as he has de- 
clared consciousness and the nervous changes to be) 
cannot be one and the same thing ! We might as well 
say that the blind man and his dog are one and the 
same thing, since one is never seen without the other. 
From all this tissue of contradictions I draw one con- 
clusion: it is that the hidden metaphysical identity 
which the monistic doctrine affirms does not exist. 
It is clear, in fact, that if we could scientifically identi- 
fy or reduce to a common basis the mental series and 
the physical series, we would not easily plunge into 
this mystery of the "unity with two faces." ^ 

When Doctor Forel, in order to explain to us the 
nature of the connection of brain and consciousness, 
tells us that the phenomena of consciousness are pro- 
duced by the "subjective mirroring" — the Selbst- 
spiegelung, the introspection of the neurokymes — there 
is perhaps here a profound metaphysical conception, 

* The best solution of this enigma is not found in monism, which 
identifies consciousness with the brain, but in pan-psychism, which 
converts the latter into the former; yet even here there are many 
difficulties! See Strong, Why the Mind has a Body, New York, 
1903; also Flournoy, "Sur le Pan - psychisme," etc.. Arch, de 
Psychol.., vol. iv, p. 129; and the reply of Strong, id., p. 145. 

23 339 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

which I would believe on his word — were it not that 
it is contrary to the facts of experience. When a 
negro regards himself in a mirror, he usually perceives 
the head of a negro, and not a firework or a snow-man — 
for if he did, he would be correct in thinking himself 
''bewitched." Let it be explained to us, then, by 
means of what witchery our neurokymes, in intro- 
specting or mirroring themselves, perceive trees, 
houses, people, fields of the microscope, as well as 
griefs, passions, scientific or metaphysical theories, 
etc. — in short, everything in the world of thought 
except the neurokymes themselves ! . . . 

This contradiction within the monistic theory is so 
striking, and the idea of a nervous wave mirroring 
itself and reflecting itself upon itself is such nonsense, 
that we ask how it is that distinguished savants can 
subscribe to such absurdities. The only explanation 
is that to them monism is not only an intellectual 
belief, but a faith — a dogma excluding all reflection 
— a religion which has taken the place of that with 
which they were saturated and disgusted in childhood. 
Thus looked at in the face, this doctrine is no more 
"respectable" than any other sincere belief, and I 
should not think of criticizing it in this manner if it 
were not for the fact that it tries to pass itself off as 
''scientific." 

I could easily multiply examples of difficulties and 
objections which one finds in monism, when one raises 
it from the domain of metaphysics into that of positive 
facts. But the preceding specimens will suffice, I 

340 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

think, to convince you that its reputation as a phi- 
losophy is ill-founded; nor is monism scientific. . . . 

There remain, however, to the monist two arguments 
which will always assure him a certain success in 
the competition of rival philosophical systems. On 
the one side, the aplomb with which he adorns his 
writings with scientific phraseology, to which it has 
no title, but which is successful in impressing the 
masses. On the other side, it responds to certain 
psychological needs, and thus presents certain real 
advantages — viz., the satisfaction given our intellec- 
tual mania for simplification and for unity at all 
costs, because the multiple and the multiplex fatigue 
us ; * the esthetic charms us, and we long for the gentle 
cradling, the species of mystic ecstasy which one ex- 
periences in contemplating Substance, the Absolute — 
necessary, unique, infinite, in pantheistic religions. . . . 

Some Characteristics of Spiritualism 

One must distinguish between the spiritualistic con- 
viction of life eternal and the spiritistic belief in sur- 
vival; for there are notable differences — the greatest 
being their psychological nature and their origin. 

For the spiritists, survival is a matter of positive 
knowledge, experimentally proved by facts which all 
the world can easily control; its admission does not 
allow any personal choice, but is based upon observa- 
tion of phenomena which necessitate its acceptance 

^ That is, the "tender minds," as Professor James called them 
in his Pragmatism, as opposed to the "tough minds." — Tr. 

341 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

whether one wills it or not, with the same evidence 
and the same certainty that all other scientific verities 
are established. For spiritualism, on the contrary, 
the cry of life eternal is a protest of the emotional 
nature which demands a continuance of life, and is a 
sort of defiance of the present order of things. This 
protestation — based upon considerations of value 
wholly foreign to science — constitutes a veritable act 
of faith, even of religious faith, if one admits, with 
Hoffding, that the essence of religion consists in a re- 
action within the interior being against the apparent 
iniquity of the course of things and an effort to safe- 
guard the supreme good which might be condemned, 
from the point of view of empirical reality. 

When facts crush us, when common observation, as 
the inductions of science seem to show us, proves that 
conscious life — and with it all the values of which it is 
the indispensable factor — is inexorably brought to 
nothingness, it is then that with certain persons the 
interior being rebels and rises up into an attitude of 
desperate resistance. ** There must be something 
more" — cries the ''obtuse consciousness of the igno- 
rant" before the corpse of a beloved being; and an 
analogous sentiment to that inspires the thinker to 
accept certain generalizations of positive science. 

You know, for example, that for the thermo- 
dynamic theory the universe in its totality is but a 
vast machine, of which all the changes are due to the 
differences of temperature existing between its extreme 
limits — namely, the incandescent nebulae on the one 

342 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

hand, and, on the other, the absolute zero of inter- 
stellar space (273° C.)- It is in the course of this 
cooling (the degradation of energy) from one of these 
limits to the other that the chemical combinations 
are formed — so unstable — which constitute our living 
being. But this condition, favorable to the unfold- 
ing of life, would only have appeared very late,^ and 
then only to last a short time, since a further fall of 
some dozen degrees would suffice to congeal forever 
this protoplasm. So that one might conclude with 
M. Henry Poincare that life is but a short episode be- 
tween two eternities of death, and that, in this episode 
even, conscious thought has lasted and will last but a 
moment. Thought is only a flash in the middle of 
a long night. Yet it is this flash which is everything I^ 
The spiritualist cannot believe that this flash in the 
pan is everything. For him life is of more value; it 
has more definite purpose. . . . For the spiritualist 
it does not matter whether spiritism be true or false; 
if false, that proves nothing against the moral signifi- 
cance of the universe and the reality of another life; 
if true, so much the better — though materialism might 
interpret the facts as demonstrating a mere prolonga- 
tion (purely temporary) of consciousness due to the 

* Toward 40° C; i. e., quite near the final term of this gigantic 
fall of temperature, when one thinks of the millions and millions of 
degrees from its point of departure. 

^ There are many other proofs of spiritualism — ^these being the 
revelations of the interior life; but at present I am content to lay 
these to one side, and consider the questions purely from the more 
objective point of view. 

343 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

persistence for some time after death of certain com- 
binations of organic forces or forms of energy, more 
slow to decompose than the denser anatomical struct- 
ures which we perceive with our senses. (Was this 
not the idea of Lombroso, whom certain observations 
had convinced of this temporary survival, without 
modifying, so far as I know, his philosophical tenden- 
cies, and who became a spiritist without becoming a 
spiritualist?)^ In other words, spiritism is neither 
necessary nor sufficient for spiritualism ; and while the 
first, by its claims to experimental demonstration, is in 
constant struggle with positive science and its methods 
of reasoning, the second by its agnostic character finds 
itself sheltered from conflicts of this kind. . . . 

Such, sir, are the principal characteristic features 
which strike me in spiritualism as compared with 
spiritism. . . . But I foresee your reply to all that I 
have said: ''But to make spiritualism depend upon 
the mind and will is to confess that its truth is not 
demonstrated'' No, sir, it is not demonstrated. But 
cite me a philosophy which is! It is certainly not 
monism — however much its votaries contend that it 
is; and neither is spiritism, of which the proofs are not 
yet sufficiently strong to convince all those who wit- 
ness or hear about them. In no metaphysical doctrine 
are there proofs of this kind; the individual must 
always remain the sole judge. There are not even 

^ "The conclusions of spiritism are far from contradicting those 
of monism, for the soul, in returning through a fluidic form of 
matter, continues to belong to the world of matter." — Lombroso, 
Hypnotisme et Spiritisme, p. 6. 

344 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

probabilities, in the scientific sense of the word. We 
choose always that which appeals to us as true. . , . 
Let us recognize, then, that when we consider the riddle 
of the universe, all hypotheses are logically equiva- 
lent, equally irrefutable and undemonstrable. There is 
nothing absurd — i. e., contradictory — in supposing 
that this world is absurd, that is to say, denuded of all 
reasonable sense — the product of pure chance, in which 
the "bad genius" of Descartes tries to deceive us; 
or that it is the work of an imbecile or a fool. But 
there is also nothing absurd in supposing that it has 
sense, and a sense which tends toward a life of truth and 
justice, of beauty and of goodness, of saintliness and 
love — since these aspirations are part of ourselves and 
we make part of the universe; and we cannot com- 
prehend very well how Substance or the Absolute 
could create conscious personalities having these 
desires and fancies! 

Confess, then, that it is not less absurd to believe in 
the survival of individual beings than in their anni- 
hilation — even should one not believe in the re- 
turn of the discarnate through a medium — so that 
the position of the spiritualists who are not spiritists 
is far from being as untenable as you imagine. 

CONCLUSION 

It is time to terminate this epistle, already too long. 
Permit me to sum up and conclude briefly. 

Under the apparent unity of its vocabulary con- 
temporaneous spiritism is a combination of two very 

34S 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

different things: First, a spiritualistic philosophy, 
essentially moral and religious, of the universe and of 
life; and secondly, the ancient animistic belief in the 
intervention of spirits of the dead in our world. . . . 

This belief in spirits, which its adherents claim to- 
day to have proved scientifically, is the relic of a uni- 
versal belief which dates from the infancy of human- 
ity, because it explains certain remarkable phenomena 
(somnambulism, pathological dissociations, multiple 
personality, etc.) which seem at first sight capable 
of explanation only by supposing that spirits are 
present, different from that of the patient. This 
interpretation, and especially the practices which it 
suggests, increase the deplorable consequences to the 
mental and physical health. The Hebrew legislators 
and prophets, with their wonderful intuition as to the 
necessity of social hygiene and the conditions of true 
spirituality, attempted, without complete success, to 
eliminate these harmful customs in denouncing them as 
a religious abomination. The modern savants ought 
to continue this work of cleansing and purification from 
another point of view — by means of the newly discov- 
ered tools of experimental science. Unfortunately, 
infatuated by their own materialistic conceptions and 
prejudiced against spiritism by reason of its musty 
odor of superstition, they believed for long that it 
would suffice to oppose it by silence and scorn, with- 
out deigning to examine the very real phenomena with 
which it was fed. They did not see that for savants 
the display of this obstinate ignorance, this negation of 

346 



SPIRITISM AND SPIRITUALISM 

popular beliefs, is an idiotic policy which ultimately 
brings about its own undoing. . . . 

The doctrine of spiritism, free as it is from compli- 
cated ''theories of knowledge" and higher metaphysi- 
cal speculations, is fitted for the masses, and, as many 
have doubtless found consolation in this belief, one 
should not make fun of it. . . . Further, since it opens 
the doors of conviction to the reality of a world beyond 
our senses, it serves its place and leads to further con- 
victions. . . . There are spiritists, too, who have 
never attended a seance or seen a single manifestation, 
and who state that they hold to their belief simply 
because of the simplicity, the beauty, the moral and 
religious evidence of the spiritistic teachings (the 
indefinite progress of the soul as the result of indi- 
vidual effort, etc.) . 

It is not to be denied, then, that spiritism as a whole 
— phenomena and doctrine, the one carrying the 
other — has done a certain amount of good. Many 
savants have been conquered by the power of the facts 
of which they have been witnesses.* These are the 
glorious trophies of spiritism; and in more modest 

^ To quote only one example: "I was," said A. R, Wallace, 
"a materialist so complete and. so convinced that there was no 
place in my mind for any spiritual existence, or for any other 
agents in the universe than matter and force. Facts, however, 
are stubborn things. . . . These facts convinced me. They 
forced me to accept them as facts long before I could accept the 
spiritistic explanation. There was not at that time in the fabric 
of my thoughts place for this conception. Little by little a place 
was made. It was made, not by preconceived opinions, but by a 
continuous accumulation of fact upon fact, which could not be 
explained in any other way," 

347 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 

spheres its victories are so numerous that it has be- 
come a factor in social and reHgious evolution of 
considerable importance. ... At the same time, I 
believe that spiritism is in many ways decidedly 
detrimental to the moral health of the community. 
Many become disillusioned, it is true, and return 
either to their former complete incredulity, or, if faith 
remains to them, they again join the Church. Leaders 
of spiritism endeavor to retain these skeptics by bring- 
ing forward newer scientific truths — of which they 
themselves are not sure and which constantly run the 
risk of being disproved by later discoveries or by 
different interpretations better founded. 

Without doubt there are always some superior 
natures for whom moral reasons would have more 
effect than sensible phenomena, and who in spite of 
their disillusioning would remain faithful to spiritual- 
ism, even though they had failed to believe in spirit- 
ism. But they are the exceptions. It is in the hope 
of increasing their numbers that I write you this 
letter, in an endeavor to convert you to spiritualism, 
which relates to the intimate consciousness of all, 
and has nothing to expect from the doubtful facts of 
spiritism, which we may safely leave to future investi- 
gations in metapsychics. 



INDEX 



Abelard, posthumous dis- 
courses of, 142-143. 

Abnormal conditions induced 
by spiritism, 31 1-3 16. 

Abnormal psychology, 10. 

Agassiz, fish of, 129-134. 

Aggazzotti, Dr., 251. 

Aksakof, Count, 144, 148, 162. 

Alrutz, Dr., 291-292, 269. 

Amiel, Frederic, 1 51-153. 

Analogies between Leopold and 
Bien Boa, 225-231. 

Animal tricks, explanation of, 
322. 

Anti-suicidal hallucinations, 97- 
99, III, 112-114. 

Arrhenius, Svante, 336. 

Automatically written books, 
136. 

B — , Mme., case of, 1 21-122. 
Baggally, W. W., 260, 274-275, 

293- 
Balfour, Rt. Hon. A. J., 54. 

Balfour, Rt. Hon. G. W., 176, 

182. 
Ballet, Prof., 273. 
Baraduc, Dr., 300, 301. 
Baroness de A — , case of, 

103— III 



Bien Boa, case of, 220-231. 
Binet, A., 114, 
Binswanger, Prof., 301. 
Blavatsky, Mme., 243. 
Boirac, M., 39, 114, 246, 301. 
Bottazzi, Prof., 248, 255. 
Bouvier, Prof., 161. 
Brey, Mme., case of, 11 9-1 20, 
Biichner, Prof., 304, 305, 325. 
Buscarlet, Mme., case of, 206- 
207. 

Calvin, case of, 153-154. 
Capsoni, case of, 172-173. 
Carancini, case of, 292-293. 
Carrington, Helen Wildman, 19. 
Carrington, Hereward, 1-19, 216, 

223, 251, 260, 274-282. 
Cellini, case of, 99-103. 
Census of hallucinations, 64. 
Chance, theory of , 120, 248-249. 
Charnaux, M., 319. 
Claparede, Prof., 292. 
Collective hallucinations, 64. 
Composite theory of the Palla- 

dino phenomena, 257. 
Confederacy, theory of, 248. 
Cook, Florence, case of, 218-220. 
Copernicus, 24, 66. 
Coriat, Dr. I., 10. 



Barrett, Prof. W. F., 21, 216, Coulin, T., case of, 124-125. 



258. 
Beauchamp, Miss, case of, 192- 

193- 
Bergson, Prof., 273. 

Bertin, M., case of, 82-86. 



Courtier, M., 216, 270-274. 
Crookes, Sir William, 54, 218- 

220, 224, 323. 
Cross-correspondences, 174-183, 

238-240. 



349 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



Cryptaesthesia, 114- 117, 117- 

120. 
Cryptomnesia, 11 4- 117, 123- 

125, 163-166, 173. 
Cryptopsychism, 114-117. 
Curie, Mme., 273. 
Curie, P., 273. 

Darel, Mme., case of, 154-160, 

296, 298. 
D'Arsonval, 273. 
Darwin, Charles, 24, 66. 
Davis, A. J., 136. 
Delanne, M., 28-29, 114, 162. 
Delboeuf, Prof., 264. 
Demole, Eug., 296, 298-299. 
Demonstrations vs. faith, 344- 

345- 
Denis, M., 153, 317-318, 320. 

Densmore, Dr. Emmet, 136. 

Descartes, 345. 

de V — , Mme., 143. 

Dickens, Charles, case of, 143- 
149. 

Difficulty in obtaining commu- 
nications, 183-187. 

Disease in relation to the super- 
normal, 35. 

Disintegrations of personality, 
55, 58-59. 192-194, 201-202. 

Dissociations of personality; see 
disintegrations of. 

Divine revelations at Geneva, 

139- 
Dramatizatibn, subconscious, 

165-166. 

Dreams, 86-87, 106, 107. 

Dufour, M., 161. 

Dupond, Mme., case of, 72-82. 

DuPrel, Charles, 132. 

Dyck, Mme., case of, 296. 

Edwin Drood, case of, 143- 

149. 
Eusapia Palladino; see Palla- 

dino. 
Evil spirits, question of, 71, 79- 

81, 90, 91-95, 200-201. 

35 



Fairbanks, Mme. K., 144. 
Faith vs. demonstration, 344- 

345- 

Falcomer, Prof., 171-173. 

Fechner, Prof., 338. 

Feilding, Hon. Everard, 254, 
260, 274, 275, 293. 

Fel, Mme., 296. 

Feraguth, 301. 

Foa, C, 251. 

Foa, P., 251. 

Forbes, Mrs., case of, 239. 

Forel, Dr., 332-333, 337-340. 

Forster, J., 146, 147. 

Fraud, theory of, in the Palla- 
dino case, 249-250, 262-270. 

Freeborn, H., 205. 

Freer, Miss Goodrich, 137. 

Freud, Sigmund, i, 86, 113. 

Galileo, 259. 

Gasparin, Count, 27-28, 268. 

Genius, 59-61. 

Gibier, M., 72. 

Gladstone, 14. 

Glika, Mme., 291. 

Goodhart, Dr., 320-321. 

Graham, W. J., 185. 

Grasset, 114, 115. 

Growth and materialization, 

222-223. 
Guardian angels, question of, 

123-124. 
Guelt, Mme., 39-41. 
Gurney, Edmund, 49, 53, 64, 

179. 

Haeckel, Ernst, 304, 305, 325, 
328, 332. 

Hallucinations, census of, 64; 
collective, 64; theory of, 
250-256; visceral and verid- 
ical types, 130. 

Hanna, Mr., case of, 173. 

Hartmann, 132, 326. 

Hasdeu, case of, 167-168. 

Head, Dr. Henry, 120. 

Helmholtz, 21. 



INDEX 



Heredity, physical, 39-41. 
Herlitzka, Dr., 251. 
Hilprecht, Prof., 131. 
Hindu magic, 255-256. 
Hodgson, Dr. Richard, 55, 161, 
168-171, 179, 184, 236, 243, 

258, 323- 
Hoffding, Prof., 342. 
Holland, Mrs., 175, 177, 178, 179, 

239- 
Home, D. D., 34. 

Hugo, Victor, case of, 3 10-3 11. 

Hypnotism, experiments in, 62- 

63, 190-191. 
Hyslop, James H., 138, 173-174, 

184, 208, 236, 239, 283, 308, 

323. 324- 
Hysteria, 59. 
Hysterics, subconscious fears of, 

109— no. 

Identity, psychical, theory of, 

337-341. 
Imagination in mediumship, 

207-208. 
Imoda, Dr., 301. 
Incubation, marvels of , 129-149. 
Intelligent cause of phenomena, 

189—190. 
Internal sensations as a cause 

of hallucinations, 120. 

Jabois, 301. 

James, T. P., case of, 143-149. 

James, William, iv, 5, 13, 21, 

53. 54, 61, 169-170, 171, 237, 

323, 324, 341- 
Janet, Pierre, no, 114. 
Joan of Arc, 97. 
"John King," history of, 232. 
Johnson, Miss Alice, 55, 175, 

178, 239. 
Jones, Dr. Ernest, 87. 
Julia's bureau, 174. 
Jung, Dr., 112, 301. 

Kardec, Allen, 72, 189, 190, 
203, 234. 

35 



Katie King, case of, 218-220. 
Keller, Helen, 173. 
Kerner, 173. 
Krebs, Dr. S. L., 286. 

Lang, Andrew, 149. 

Laplace, 214. 

Leaf, Dr. Walter, 48. 

Leblanc, Mme., case of, 89-90. 

Ledoc, M., case of, 126-128. 

Lehmann, Prof., 259. 

Lemaitre, M., 135. 

Leroy, C. B., no. 

Letort, M., 309. 

Life as a separate energy, 336. 

Living, messages from the, 318- 

319- 
Lodge, Sir Oliver, 171, 258, 323, 

324, 336. 
Lombroso, Prof., 231, 262, 298, 

324, 344. 
Lord, Prof., 282. 
Loti, Pierre, 329. 
Lourdes, miracles of, 63. 
Luciani, M., 248. 

Maeterlinck, 120. 

Mangin, Marcel, 181. 

Mars, description of, 138-139. 

Materialization, question of, 222- 
223, 277-278, 279-282. 

Meader, John R., 12. 

Mediums, natural types of, 45- 
46. 

Mediumship, appearance of, 41- 
42; duration of, 42-44; ter- 
mination of, 44-45- 

Memory in mediumship, 2 04-2 06. 

Metapsychics, 39. 

Metethereal world, 57. 

Miles, Miss, 176. 

Miller, C. V., 309. 

Miller, Miss Frank, 137. 

Miracles of Lourdes, 63. 

Monism, contra, 326-341. 

Morselli, Prof. H., 215, 231-232, 
248, 261, 262, 263, 266, 267, 
268. 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



Moses, Stainton, 34, 42, 140-142, 

173- 
Mosso, Prof., 252. 

Multiple personality, theory of, 

320-321. 
Miinsterberg, Hugo, 21-22, 282- 

288. 
Myers, Dr. A. T., 53. 
Myers, F. W. H., i, 48-67, 98, 

117, 179, 180, 181, 239, 240, 

242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 258, 

323- 

Nancy, cases of, 162-166. 
Natural types of mediums, 45- 

46. 
Neuric force, 301. 
Neurokymes, theory of, 332-341 . 

OcHORowicz, Dr. J., 18, 248, 

258, 269, 288-290. 
Odic force, 301. 
Ostwald, Dr., 335. 



Palladino, Eusapia, iii, 15-19, 
20, 34, 42, 43» 161, 215, 231- 
232, 242-296, 301. 

Parapsychic, 39. 

Perovsky - Petrovo - Solovovo, 
Count, 251. 

Personal evidences of telekine- 
sis, 291—292. 

Personality, disintegrations of, 

55, 58-59- 
Peterson, Dr., 301. 

Phantasmogenetic center, 64. 

Photographic plates, marks on, 
296-302. 

Physical phenomena of medium- 
ship, 313-318. 

Piddington, J. G., 120, 170-171, 
177, 178, 239. 

Pigou, Prof., 176, 182. 

Piper, Mrs., 7, 20, 34, 42, 138, 
161, 168-171, 175, 177, 178, 
179, 184, 234-239, 323. 

Podmore, Frank, 64, 173, 251, 
260. 



Poincare, Henry, 343. 
Possession, theory of, 65. 
Prejudice, question of, 23. 
Premonitions, causes of, 117- 

120. 
Prince, Dr. Morton, 9-10, 86-87, 

122, 192, 193, 301. 
Psychical heredity, 39-41. 
Psychodynamic theory, 261- 

270. 
Psychogalvanic reflexes, 301. 

Questionnaire, 32-33. 

Radioactivity, mediumistic, 

298, 300-302. 
Ramsden, Miss, 176. 
Raupert, J. Godfrey, 8. 
Richet, Charles, 39, 50, 69, 191, 

215, 218, 220, 221, 242, 243, 

244, 246, 248, 258. 



Sardou, 208. 

Saxo, Mme., case of, 154-160, 

296, 297, 298. 
Schrenck-Notzing, Dr. von, 242. 
Sidgwick, Mrs. H., 1 70-171, 239, 

259, 260. 
Sidgwick, Prof. Henry, 49, 52, 

179. 
Sidis, Boris, 301, 320-321. 
Sleep, theory of, 61-62. 
Smead, Mrs., case of, 138-139, 

208. 
Smith, Mile., case of, 29, 135, 

138, 139, i73» 296. 

Spinoza, 326. 

Spirit teachings, 140-142. 

Spiritism and spiritualism, iii- 
iv, 6-15, 22, 32, 46-47, 240- 
241, 247-248, 306-325, 325- 

333, 341-345- 
Stead, William T., 174. 
Stewart, Balfour, 54. 
Strong, G. A., 339. 
Stumpf, Prof., 322. 
Subconscious dramatization, 

165-166; conjecture, 125-129. 

352 



INDEX 



Subliminal psychology, 48-67. 
Sumner, Prof., 301. 
Surbled, Dr., 143. 
Swedenborg, 39. 
Symbolic personification, 108- 
112. 

Tarchanof, 301. 

Telekinesis, personal evidence 

of, 291—292. 
Teleological automatisms, 96- 

97- 
Telepathic hypnotism, 236-237. 

Telepathy, 64, 65, 209-213. 

Telepathy, theories of, 210-212. 

Teleplasty, 261. 

Thermodynamic theory, 342- 

^343- 

Thomas, Dr. Emile, 104. 

Thompson, Mrs., 54. 

Thury, Marc, iv, 27-28, 268. 

Til, M., case of, 82, 194-201. 

Tomczyk, Mile., case of, 18, 288- 

291. 
Tommasina, M., 251-254, 
Trance, question of, in Eusapia, 

286-287. 



Transmission theory of con- 
sciousness, 61. 
Tromelin, M., 301. 
Tuttle, Hudson, case of, 136. 

Venzano, Dr., 267, 277-278, 

279, 280, 281. 
Verrall, Dr., 183. 
Verrall, Mrs., 175, 177, 178, 179, 

181, 182, 239. 
Villa Carmen, phenomena at, 

220-231. 
Violet, Dr., 8, 314. 
Vitality, human, 61. 
Vogt, Carl, case of, 154-160. 

Wallace, Dr. A. R., 318, 323, 

347- 
Waterman, Dr. G. A., 107. 

Williams, Dr. C, 313. 

Wundt, 21. 

X— , Mlle., 153-154. 

X — , Mr., case of, 11 7-1 18. 

Zero, absolute, 343. 

Zora, Mme., case of, 87-89. 



NOTES BY TRANSLATOR 



On the terms " parapsychic " 
and " met apsy chic," 39. 

On psychical heredity, 41. 

On the conditions for the exer- 
cise of mediumistic faculty, 43 . 

On the nature of sleep, 61. 

On Freud's theory of dreams, 
86-87. 

On mediumistic impersonation, 

93- 

On the causation of symptoms 
by dreams, 107. 

On the difference between vis- 
ceral and veridical hallucina- 
tions, 120. 

On books automatically written, 
136. 



On Mr. Andrew Lang's account 

of Edwin Drood, 149, 
On the uniqueness of the Piper 

and Palladino cases, 161. 
On the supernormal knowledge 

displayed by mediums, 163. 
On Prof. James's attitude to- 
ward the spiritistic hypothesis, 

170. 
On crypt omnesia, 173. 
On the cross - correspondence 

tests, 182. 
On premonitions and the case of 

Mme. Buscarlet, 206-207. 
On the Smead case, 208. 
On the materializations of the 

Villa Carmen, 220. 



353 



SPIRITISM AND PSYCHOLOGY 



On the telepathic hypothesis in 
the Piper case, 236-237. 

On cross-correspondences, 239. 

On Eusapia Palladino, 250. 

On the theory of hallucination 
in the Palladino case, 253-254. 

On hallucination in Hindu 
magic, 255-256. 

On the Palladino reports, 274. 

On the sources of the Palladino 
quotations, 276. 

On rival theories in the Palla- 
dino case, 281. 

On fraud in the Palladino case, 
282-283. 

On Prof. Miinsterberg's "Ex- 
pos6," 284. 

On Eusapia Palladino's trance 
state, 287. 

On the case of Mile. Tomczyk, 
290. 




On the phenomena of the me- 
dium Carancini, 293. 

On the marks left upon photo- 
graphic plates, 298. 

On psychogalvanic reflexes and 
mediumistic radiations, 301. 

On Dr. Wallace's attitude to- 
ward spiritism, 318. 

On angelic and demoniac com- 
munications, 318. 

On Sidis's and Goodhart's theory 
of subconscious activities, 321. 

On the tricks of trained animals, 
322. 

On the conversion of scientific 
men to spiritism, 323. 

On Forel's monistic theory of 
consciousness, 332. 

On the origin of life, 336. 

On ' ' tender "vs.*' tough ' ' minds, 
341- 



THE END 



RD 'trii 










> 







Ho^ 















Ho^. 





..„_ _ VV 




.0 











<^. 









.0' 



^ _ >* A <^ 



o . 0,1 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
IJt Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2004 




yf:' PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



i > X^ in 






o V 




;<> ^. <^ *N 




■^ 



0^ 



40^ 






^^0^ 



^ t?* ^' 












LiaiUllV BINOINO V o 




FEB 76^0.^ 'o 

;^SLAUGUSTINE ^ 

I /»S?!«\ PI A . "^^ 





















LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




013 523 578 7 



111 

II 

I lilt' 

! 

if : 



It 




